The UA Winter Ball
by Dorky Desperado
Summary: Uraraka decides to compete in Dekubowl.
1. Chapter 1

Today was the day, Uraraka decided.

It was going to be the day she'd confess her feelings for her fellow hero-in-training, Midoriya Izuku, or Deku as she so affectionately called him.

If she could get past her nerves, that is.

During the Hero Provisional License Exam, she had decided to withhold her feelings so she could focus more on becoming the best hero she could be. After watching Deku's focus and drive toward becoming the number one hero, a dream Uraraka was confident he would achieve, she felt like such feelings would just distract from her own hero goals.

Deku had that effect on her, on nearly all of their class. His determination and heart were infectious and she often found herself swept up in his wake and wanted to step up her own performance. While all of her hard work this year wasn't purely because of Deku, she'd be lying if she didn't think of him as her motivation. And it was kind of humbling to see this shy, dorky kid be such a strong hero.

And after seeing him kick so much Villian butt, how could she not want to be similar to him?!

But her admiration soon deepened into something more and before she knew it, Uraraka found herself falling in love with the boy.

Gosh, she was already blushing just thinking about it and she hadn't even gotten to the asking out part yet!

But really, how could she not fall for the dashing young hero who doesn't hesitate to jump into life-threatening situations and always finds a way to come up on top? How could she not fall for someone who is kind and always willing to listen to her ramble on about the latest celebrity news and the cute way he gets all bashful when she gets close and his adorable little freckles and ohmygoshshesramblingjustlikeDekuhowembarrassing.

Uraraka slapped her hands against her face and drew in a deep breath before letting out a strangled squee. She breathed in deeply again to calm herself down, ignoring with all of her might the heat that crept up to her cheeks.

Nerves.

The worst.

But maybe it was ok to think such devilishly tempting thoughts now. After all, the academic calendar gave her the perfect excuse to focus on her love life rather than her hero life: Christmas Eve.

More specifically, Christmas Eve at UA.

Christmas time, oddly enough, has the lowest crime occurrence of the entire calendar year. Something it's because of the cold weather, or maybe even the villains get swept up in the holiday spirit themselves.

Aizawa-sensei had another theory: Christmas was one of the few times in the year where heroes tended to get a break from villain fighting. If a villain WERE to do something during this time, they'd be faced with a legion of grumpy heroes upset that someone interrupted holiday-time. Aizawa-sensei was scary enough when they had to wake him up to get the class started; Uraraka shuddered to think what would happen if his rest was interrupted during a time he was actually ALLOWED to sleep in.

As such, UA tended to make a big deal of holiday and gives all of the students a week off. During this time there was no homework, no internships and they even closed off most of the training grounds. Being a hero meant merry-time was in limited quantity and UA would make sure nothing would get in the way of its students' well-deserved merriment.

Nothing except the UA Winter Ball.

Well, that was technically included under merriment but Uraraka wasn't too nitpicky on details.

As an annual tradition, UA holds a huge dance on the night of Christmas Eve for all of the students and staff. It's the only school-related project students and staff are involved in during the break which isn't a lot, surprisingly. A lot of the planning and preparation of the dance are handled by the upperclassmen beforehand so all the students have to do is set it up the day before, freeing the rest of the break up for the students to do whatever they please.

It's also the only dance UA puts on all year.

Sure, there was the cultural festival, and while there was dancing at the concert her class put on, it's not the same as a school-wide, fancy ball.

A school-wide, fancy ball that the student body was encouraged to take dates to.

So, in short, the UA Winter Ball was a school-wide fancy dance on Christmas Eve, one of the most romantic holidays of the year, her mind unhelpfully reminded her nervously beating heart. It was also during a time where the students were encouraged to take a break from heroics and rest, relax and flirt to their heart's content.

Wait, what was that last bit?

Uraraka shook her head and tried to dispel the impure thoughts invading her mind. Still, with the break and the ball, Uraraka really had no excuse for going for it. She wouldn't want to regret not asking Deku later on when they didn't have the time for it. She knew if she didn't, she was just going to be up all night wondering 'what if?'

So, this was where Uraraka found herself, marching steadfastly toward the dorm common room. She already knocked on his door and he wasn't there. If he wasn't at the common room, surely someone there would know where he went.

Or maybe they wouldn't and she wouldn't be able to find him in time for the dance and she could just forget it and go to sleep with a nice 'maybe next time!' and not have to worry about asking out her closest friend!

Uraraka sighed as she stopped that train of thought.

To be honest, the main reason she was so nervous was that she had no idea how Deku would respond to her confession. She could already list all of the reasons he would turn her down. First of all, he might just be so focused on being a hero that he might not want to date anyone right now. Second, they were good friends and he might not want to complicate that.

Third, maybe he was already planning on asking out All-Might?

Uraraka snickered at the thought of that. Fanboy he may be, it was pretty clear his admiration of All Might was purely platonic. Still, it was a funny thought that calmed her down a bit.

There was also another fact that gave Uraraka a small boost of confidence:

She was most likely going to be the only person asking him as a date.

Now, Deku was by no means unattractive, but he was fairly plain-looking by conventional beauty standards. Beauty standards that Uraraka considered horribly out-of-date and should just get locked up in Tartarus because they were just too dumb to understand how awesome Deku was.

Uraraka coughed.

Anyway, aside from that, he was a pretty meek guy. Outside of his hero work, Deku was super shy and kind of awkward. Also, he was a huge hero fanboy. While Uraraka actually found these qualities to be endearing, most other people would be turned off by them. Either preferring the mysterious pretty-boy type like Todoroki, or if he was a lot less angry and violent, the confident bad-boy type like Bakugo.

Those people were wrong of course, but Uraraka wasn't going to judge them on their poor taste in romantic partners. That wouldn't be very heroic.

So, Uraraka took some small confidence in that. She wouldn't have to worry about potentially breaking hearts or getting into catfights with romantic rivals or have to worry about her guts getting wrung out whenever she sees a really pretty girl talking to Deku as she starts plotting their demise, how dare they try to take Deku away from her that horrible villain!

Wow, her mind is going into all sorts of weird places today.

Still, it was nice knowing that she was the only person planning on asking out her crush to the dance.

Uraraka didn't notice the person walking with their heads hung in sorrow until she walked straight into them.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't see you- Kaminari! Are you ok?"

Kaminari looked up at her like someone who was just told they had a terminal illness and their date to expire was five minutes ago.

"Hi, Uraraka. You're not planning on asking Deku out to the dance, are you?"

Uraraka light up like the giant Christmas tree that was going to be at the ball.

"I-I have n-no idea what you're talking about! What even is a Deku? Kaminari you're hilarious!"

Uraraka forced out a hysterical laugh that would probably mistake her for having a hyena quirk. She mentally winced as she slowly died inside.

Thankfully Kaminari didn't notice.

"That's nice. Everything else is awful. I'm going to Mineta's room so we can cry in each other's arms."

"Um, ok? Kaminari, what's wrong?"

Kaminari pointed behind him at the door leading to the common room and slowly dragged his wilted body away to the elevator.

Concerned, Uraraka quickly rushed to the door and opened it.

She was greeted by the tensest tableau she had ever seen.

Yaoyorozu sat on the couch glaring daggers at Jiro who was returning them in kind. In between their mental knife fight was Iida, who had his hands pressed against each other as his face was pinched together in pure focus on, what Uraraka guessed, trying to stop their knives with his mind.

Off to the side, leaning on the couch and looking like he would want to be _anywhere_ _else_ was Todoroki. Uraraka thought she knew what an awkward facial expression looked like, but Todoroki's face had found a way to weaponize the awkwardness and turn it into an awkward bomb that spread awkwardness in a giant awkward explosion.

Uraraka couldn't see Hagakure's expression, but the way her t-shirt sleeves were positioned, she was probably displeased.

Tsuyu sat to the next of Iida, her eyes shifting rapidly between Hagakure, Jiro, and Yaoyorozu, her hand nervously in her mouth. Uraraka instinctually wanted to hug her friend at seeing how concerned she looked.

Aoyama was just Aoyama, sparkling brilliantly next to Jiro.

At least Ashido was enjoying herself. She sat on the other side of Iida with her eyes and mouth open in delight. It looked more like she was at a football game than in the middle of some kind of argument.

She was about to back away to go look for Deku elsewhere when Iida's eyes zeroed in on her, like a targeting missile sending her to her doom.

"Uraraka!"

"Yes!"

Uraraka would normally be embarrassed at standing at attention in response but Iida just had that effect on people.

"I need your help resolving this dispute."

"Um, how can I help?"

Uraraka inwardly scolded herself for saying the wrong thing. What she meant to say was, "Thank you but no. I would prefer not to be dragged into awkward hell like Todoroki over there." But unfortunately for her, her mouth just sometimes like to betray her as revenge for her minds dirty thoughts.

Which happened quite a bit more than she would have liked to admit.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Hagakure jumped up and pointed at Jiro and Yaoyorozu.

"They're denying my feelings!"

" We're not denying your feelings Hagakure. We just think that ours should take priority considering the circumstances." Yaoyorozu reluctantly took her eye daggers off of Jiro to try to calm down Hagakure.

Jiro scoffed.

"Yeah, as long as Miss Princess over here gets first priority."

Yaoyorozu eye daggers returned to Jiro in the form of death eye lasers.

"Enough!" Iida shouted bringing their quarrel to, well, a stop would be too strong; it was more like a temporary ceasefire.

"But it's not fair!" Hagakure protested. "I want to ask out Midoriya too!"

"Wait, what?" Uraraka managed to get out before her mind decided to stop functioning.

Iida drew in a deep sigh as he ran his hand along his forehead in exasperation.

"Yaoyorozu asked me for advice on asking Midoriya to the dance. Jiro overheard and protested since she also likes Midoriya. Hagakure overheard their protests and came in herself since she too likes Midoriya."

Iida sighed again and somehow managed to age thirty years before Uraraka's very eyes.

"We're trying to decide on who gets to ask Midoriya to the dance first."

"Oh."

Uraraka tried to hide the sound of her soul and her heart shattering but didn't do a fairly good job of it. Thankfully for her everyone was too distracted by the trainwreck unfolding in front of her.

"Iida, Yaoyorozu knew I liked Midoriya and still wants to go first!"

"You told me you weren't planning on asking him to the dance!"

"Just because I wasn't planning on it doesn't mean I want someone else to?"

"Jiro, why don't you just let Yaoyorozu go first and if he says no you can ask after?"

"Because Iida, she wants to go first! She's Yaoyorozu! If she wants to go first then she must have some kind of plan or strategy!"

"Well, traditionally, those who strike first have the advantage."

Yaoyorozu adopted her traditional lecturing tone and only realized her mistake after she had already shoved her foot into her mouth.

"I knew it!"

"W-why do you all l-like Deku?"

Uraraka hoped the tremble in her voice came off as her being afraid of all of the tension and not because her heart fell to the floor and was currently rolling about on fire.

They all turned to her which did wonders for her collapsing psyche.

"It started for me during the Camino incident. I was so convinced that we would have to turn back before we even got close to Bakugo. But, Midoriya instantly came up with a plan that not only let us save him, but also do it in a way that didn't involve us fighting with the villains. Since then, I've noticed the little things more: his dedication, his kindness and his skill as a hero."

Yaoyorozu stared at the ground

during her explanation with a blush. She seemed determined though, not shy. Like a general who could see the entire battle plan out in front of her and knew she was going to win.

"And how long have I liked him Momo? Care to tell the audience?"

The look on Yaoyorozu face was that of a general who didn't foresee an assassin slipping into her tent and strangling her to death with earphone cords.

"S-since, the class election."

That long!? Well, Uraraka can say with confidence that her heart had now turned to ash and had been blown away into the Pacific.

Funny world.

"A-and you Hagakure?"

"I like him because he's the closest thing to dating All Might."

…

What?

Uraraka's confusion must have shown on her face because Hagakure continued.

"Well, All Might was like, THE celebrity that everyone wants. But, like, he was too busy with being the symbol of peace and all so no one could date him. But Midoriya is just like All Might! He's superheroic and even has a similar quirk! Dating him I would be just like dating All Might!"

The room was silent at Hagakure's admission. Uraraka was still a little confused by it if she was being honest. It was Todoroki that broke the silence.

"Why wouldn't you just date All Might? He's retired so he has time for that now."

"No way! He's way too old!"

Well, at least that made sense.

"Look." Iida calmly said bringing the group's attention back to him. "I know how you all feel. I too have feelings for Midoriya, but you can't-"

Wait, WHAT?

"WHAT?" the rest of the room helpfully echoed her thoughts.

Iida took in the room with a small amount of surprise.

"Is it so hard to believe? I'd like to not get into specifics, but Midoriya helped me immensely to get past the incident with my brother and I've adored him ever since."

Uraraka stared at her friend in shock. How could she be so ignorant? She walked over to him in an apologetic trance.

"Iida, I had no idea."

Iida smiled in response. "Do not worry Uraraka. I intentionally tried to hide my feelings. I decided soon after developing them that I would withhold my feelings in order to preserve the sanctity of our friendship."

Unlike with her? Thanks, Iida, the last thing she needed was _another_ blow to her confidence.

Maybe the universe was trying to tell her something?

Hagakure raised her arm.

"So does that mean we don't have to worry about you asking Midoriya out to the dance?"

"Well, no. I'm not planning on it."

"Good. Dibs."

"You can't call dibs!" Yaoyorozu, Jiro, and Uraraka all said in unison to her absolute and utter horror

They all turned to look at her. Yaoyorozu, Hagakure (she assumed), and Jiro's eyes narrowed dangerously at her.

Iida now looked up at her shock.

"Uraraka, you too?"

"Umm"

It wouldn't be enough to say sweat began to bead down her face, it would be more appropriate to say it formed rivers down her face.

Thankfully, she was saved from her imminent demise by the sound of Ashido's howling laughter.

"I can't believe Midoriya is going to be our class heartbreaker of all people."

"Ashido, you too?" Uraraka asked nervously.

"No, not at all. I have my eyes set on the number one hottie of our class," she said with her eyes closed in mirth. When they opened, the mirth turned into confusion. "Speaking of, where is Todoroki?"

Well, out of all of the shock of the last ten minutes it was nice to have something play out as she expected.

"Midoriya." Todoroki greeted.

The room went dead silent as they all turned in the direction of Todoroki's voice. There he stood at the doorway facing the topic on everyone's mind, Izuku Midoriya, who had just entered the common room without a care in the world, blissfully unaware of the chaos he caused.

"Oh, hi Todoroki! What's up?"

"Will you go to the dance with me?"

…

Today was not the day, Uraraka decided.

* * *

Thank you for reading!

This is the second fic that I've published and I hope the quality has gone up! I'm eventually planning on finishing up my own story one day and want to get as much practice in as I continue writing it.

I appreciate any and all feedback you can give!

I'm planning on making this one a multiple chapter fic. It shouldn't be too long though. It's a lot better in length than my 1500 word one shot though. 'XD


	2. Chapter 2

"Will you go to the dance with me?" Todoroki bluntly asked Midoriya.

Nooooooooooo. Uraraka inwardly wailed. Just how many people were in love with Deku!?

The rest of the room sat in stunned silence at Todoroki's question. Many had wide-eyes and open mouths. Then you had Ashido who had passed out. Uraraka was fairly sure Ashido's soul had left her body.

It seemed no one had expected this development.

Apparently, neither did Midoriya who simply stared at Todoroki with a confused expression.

"Why are you asking me now?"

Todoroki replied with his own confused expression. "I- I was told that I would be more successful if I were to ask first."

Yaoyorozu squaked.

"Oh, I see! You want to ask me out so you don't have to break anyone's heart. That's awfully nice of you!"

"What are you talking about Midoriya?"

"Well, if we go as friends, then you don't have to worry about anyone asking you out on a date and rejecting them. That's really kind, Todoroki. You're a good person."

Wait, what? Is Deku serious?

"Midoriya, that's not what I meant. I like you."

"I like you too Todoroki."

Uraraka's spirit died.

"It's hard to come by friends as good and reliable as you. I'm really happy to have met you Todoroki."

Uraraka's spirit was resurrected. And immediately facepalmed.

"That's not what I meant Midoriya."

"It's not?"

"It is not. I want to take you to the dance as my romantic partner."

"W-what?"

Ah, there's the reaction Uraraka was waiting for.

"That's not fair Todoroki!" Hagakure stood up and pointed her t-sleeve accusingly at him. "I wanted to ask Midoriya on a date too!"

"D-date? M-me? Y-you?"

"That's right Midoriya! Let's go to the ball together! It'll be super fun!"

"Now hold on Hagakure!" It was now Yaoyorozu who stood up. "You can't ignore Jiro's and my own feelings! We also want to take Midoriya to the dance!"

"W-w-what? I-I-I don't-" Midoriya was beginning to sway. His eyes spun around so fast they formed spirals.

"And let's not forget Uraraka's feelings as well" Iida, ever the friend even when Uraraka didn't want him to be, stood up to defend her honor.

"Ura-Ura…"

Thankfully she was spared further embarrassment as all debate was stopped at the sound of Midoriya fainting and falling to the floor.

There was a small moment of silence, a calm before the storm before the whole room erupted in a cacophony of accusations, arguments, and just general yelling.

"ENOUGH!" Iida stood up and brought the room to silence. "Our fellow classmate has lost consciousness! We will all settle this later. In a manner that it becoming of UA students! Is everyone clear?"

"Yes, class representative" everyone chorused back.

"Good. Now as one of the few people NOT seeking to take Midoriya to the dance, I will bring him to his room so he can rest. Please return to your rooms. Our last day of classes is tomorrow so we should get to bed."

With that, the group slowly dispersed back into the halls. Iida, true to his word, carried Midorya bridal style (much to the chagrin of the surrounding audience) back to his room. Uraraka stayed in the common room for a while as she tried to process what just happened.

Thankfully, it seemed like almost everyone forgot about her and if she was lucky, forgot about her liking Deku completely. It seemed like it got lost under all of the confusion and the only person to really notice it was Iida.

She definitely needed to talk to him about it tomorrow. And Deku for that matter. She might be able to convince them both that it was just a misunderstanding. After all, she didn't actually confess to anything, did she?

Uraraka's heart contracted at the thought.

Although it pained her to admit it, this was now the absolute worst time to admit her feelings to Deku. He now had to deal four potential suitors and the last thing he needed was one of his closest friends to be added to that list as well. Also, the last thing Uraraka wanted was to get thrown into the middle what was probably the most dramatic event of the entire year.

Uraraka paused.

Dramatic gossip-wise of course. It'd be pretty shallow of her to think this was a bigger deal than the USJ incident, or Shigaraki at the mall, or Bakugo getting kidnapped, or the whole Eight Precepts-

...

Wow, what even _was_ their first year?

Still, no good fretting about it now. She had a game plan and staying up all night worrying wouldn't do her much good.

Uraraka was sure everything would be fine come morning.

/-/

Everything was not fine come morning.

First of all, Midoriya had still not come back down. When she asked Iida about it, he simply shrugged and said he might still be overwhelmed and that they should give him some space.

Second of all, was her conversation with Iida. She was able to catch him in the way to breakfast. Thankfully, through mainly forced laughs, flailing arms and her traitorous cheeks blushing out of control, she was able to get out that she didn't have feelings for Deku and that she wasn't going to ask him out to the dance.

Iida told her he believed her.

Iida's knowing smirk as he said so suggested otherwise.

Which was embarrassing, but fine since it meant she probably wouldn't get dragged I to what was being dubbed as "The Dekubowl" by Sero. And gosh, was that an incident. Which led to the final thing that made the morning a steaming pile of "not fine:" the participants of said "Dekubowl."

Word had gotten around about last night's events and appropriately, the UA rumor mill was running at full blast.

Well, until breakfast happened at least.

If she thought the conversation last night was tense, the morning breakfast set the record. Mainly because not a word was spoken.

At all.

It was nothing but silence threaded through angry glares and murderous intent knitting a terrible sweater of awkward.

Once the "competitors" all gathered around the perimeter of the food hall, trying to bore holes through each other's heads with their stares, Sero had the bright idea to announce the start of the greatest sports festival to happen their year: Dekubowl. He then tried to take bets on who the victor would be until every single participant bore all of their anger at him with the scariest group death glare Uraraka had ever seen.

She was fairly sure Sero lost a few years of his life from that incident.

After that, it was back to the silence. The terrifying silence that everyone knew was backed by the threat of violence breaking out.

Everyone except Iida who just didn't notice the tension. He just calmly ate more focused on ensuring the day was going to be a productive one.

Lucky him.

It didn't help that she sat with him in the middle of the room, and got quite a lot of the glares directed at her. Stupid UA rumor mill, it spread every rumor like fire except the ones you actually WANTED to be spread. Like how she didnt want any part in this!

Thankfully she was saved by the bell warning them that class was supposed to start soon. Iida, bless his soul but damn his obliviousness, suggested they wait for Midoriya to make sure he was ok.

She agreed because she was worried herself but quickly regretted it as she felt five pairs of eyes burn lasers through the back of her head.

Yep, she needed out of this ASAP.

They waited for about five minutes and they were started to get worried until they heard footsteps quickly rush down the stairs.

Deku quickly sprinted out the door and slid to a stop in front of them, his eyes panicked and panting for breath. Uraraka noticed his clothes were very ruffled and his tie wasn't even tied. He seemed to calm down at the sight of them and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Uraraka wished she could do the same but her heart was hammering too hard.

Did he still think she liked him? How was he going to react? Should she make the first move and try to play it off as a misunderstanding? Oh gosh, what if he returned her feelings!

Uraraka tried to squash the spike of happiness that nearly overwhelmed her.

No! He wasn't going to do that. Even if for some small chance liked her back, he now had four other people pining for her interests. How was she supposed to compete with Yaoyorozu who was basically a princess? How was she going compete with Todoroki!?

Even she had to admit, that boy was beautiful.

Still, she had to say something, anything. She had to find a way to smooth out this situation!

"Bwah?"

It wasn't her finest moment.

"I'm so sorry I'm late! For some reason, I forgot to set my alarm last night and I ended up oversleeping."

"It's quite alright Midoriya. We should get moving though if we want to get to class on time" Iida had already started jogging ahead, Uraraka and Midoriya followed quickly behind.

Uraraka kept trying to steal glances at Deku as they rushed to class but he seemed very focused on staring at the floor.

Too focused.

"Is everything ok, Deku?"

Midoriya looked up at her and _blushed_ and quickly looked back to the floor.

Oh no! He remembers! Oh gosh, what does he think? What should she do? Is it too late to transfer to Suiketsu?

"I'm sorry, I just had a really strange dream last night."

Wait, what?

"A dream?"

"Did it have anything to do with USJ? The League of Villains? Should we take you to Recovery Girl to help treat for symptoms of PTSD?" Iida called back at him as he continued to jog to class. That was something Uraraka always liked about Iida. He took everything seriously which could be a little much sometimes, but you could always rely on him to be there when you needed him to be. Fully prepared and ready to go.

"What? No, no, no! Nothing as serious as that." Deku frantically waved away Iida's concerns. "It was… well, it's actually embarrassing to admit."

No, it couldn't be…

"Deku, you can tell us! You know we're not going to make fun of you or anything!"

"Uraraka is right. And if it is bothering you in any way, we would like to know."

"You guys..." Deku looked genuinely moved by their words. It almost looked like he might shed a tear.

So cute!

"Well, I don't want to sound too arrogant but I had a dream where Todoroki asked me out to the dance! And then Yaoyorozu, Hagakure, Jiro and uh, and they all got really mad because they wanted to ask me to the dance! Which is just silly. What an embarrassing dream!" he adorably scratched the back of his head the entire time, a big, cute blush spread throughout his face as his recounted his "dream"

Uraraka got excited as she found her escape route. Deku thought it was a dream! This was perfect!

"Midoriya." Iida started,

It was not perfect! Iida was about to ruin everything!

"I don't think that was a dre-"

"Iida, look out!" Uraraka called, suspiciously too late to warn Iida of her loss of balance on flat ground. Uraraka, completely unintentionally and totally an accident, slapped Iida's back to try and stop herself from falling. Iida's forward momentum combined with Uraraka's quirk caused him to suddenly launch skyward.

And straight into a metal pole.

"Whoops." Uraraka stared wide at their friend who was currently achieving first base with a light post. A small part of her told her that was the most action anyone in her class has gotten so far in the Dekubowl. She told that part of her to shut up.

"Iida!" Deku called out and rushed forward to help Iida. Uraraka released her quirk and Deku caught Iida as he fell, bridal-style. One part of Uraraka burned in jealousy. The other part squeed in delight at the sight of two dashing, young men in such a pose.

She refused to acknowledge that part's existence. Especially now that Todoroki was in the picture.

Deku let Iida back down on to the ground, disappointing her hormones, but giving her a chance to walk over and make sure Iida was ok. She meant to get him to stop talking, not break his face.

"Iida, are you ok?" she asked.

"Uraraka! You must be very careful with your quirk! Someone could have been very hurt!"

"I know! I know! I'm sorry! I panicked! I didn't mean for you to get hurt! Do you need to go to Recovery Girl?"

"No, thankfully I wasn't running fully when you fell. This is why people shouldn't run in the halls! Because of my safe thinking, all I got was a small bump to my head!"

Uraraka smiled in relief. Iida was giving them a safety talk which meant he was ok.

"Is everything ok, Uraraka? You normally wouldn't panic at something like that."

Uraraka smile dropped and her eyes widened in panic. Sweat quickly began to fall off of her face. Of course, Deku would notice that of all things! He can't notice half of the class falling in love with him but he can notice her forgetting to use her quirk properly! Now Iida was giving g her a concerned look too!

"W-well. You told us about your dream and I thought maybe it would make us late to class? So, I got worried and tripped." Uraraka winced. Good job brain. That was a fantastic excuse. A+ Best job.

"Why would it make us late to class?" Deku asked.

An idea immediately sprang to her mind. A good idea. Uraraka forgave her brain for its previous relapse.

"Well, I was worried that the content would be too much for you and you would pass out from the excitement." She gave Iida a pointed look and his eyes widened in realization.

Deku gave her a confused look.

"Really? I don't think I would-"

"Uraraka is right Midoriya!"

"She is?!"

"Yes! Now, let's hurry to class before we are late!" Iida sped off, not too quickly of course. Deku and Uraraka chased after him.

Phew, another bullet dodged. If she was lucky maybe the rest of the day wouldn't be so bad?

/-/

It was bad. It was very bad.

As soon as Uraraka walked into class with Iida and, more importantly, Deku, every person in the room turned to look at them. The events of the night before were the hot gossip this morning. Ashido, Mineta and Kaminari looked at Deku with pure envy on their eyes while Kirishima and Sero gave Deku the proudest smile they could muster. Bakugo gave Deku a cold, calculating glare which, Uraraka prayed to whatever god was listening meant, that Bakugo wasn't going to throw his hat into the ring as well. She didn't know if he had a crush on Deku but things were complicated enough without the childhood friend trope rearing its ugly head.

The stares that worried Uraraka the most were the four pairs of eyes that saw her walk into the room with Deku and narrowed dangerously. No doubt thinking to themselves that she was getting the upper hand. She needed to find a way to convince them that she didn't want to ask Deku out anymore!

Uraraka ignored the knots curling in her stomach.

Thankfully, Aizawa was already up in front of the class preventing any of her "competition" from confronting her about it. Which was nice because it gave her time to think of a way out of all of this.

"Are you going to take your seat, Uraraka?" Aizawa said with an annoyed stare.

"Huh?"

"You've been staring at me for the past two minutes. You have five seconds to get in your chair before we have a problem."

It took her only two to rush over to her seat.

Uraraka ignored the scattered chuckles from the class. She didn't even need to look to know who they were coming from four specific individuals. Still, laughing at her was better than them plotting her murder so Uraraka was going to take that win.

Aizawa took in the entire class and began to speak. "Anyway, as you all know, we are going to have no classes or assignments during the next week."

A few people cheered.

Aizawa glared at them.

They stopped cheering.

Aizawa continued, "Breaks like this are few and far between in the life of a hero. Even less so now with the recent increase in villain activity. If things continue like this, you may not have this opportunity again next year or even when you are all professionals."

The class hung on his every word. His face was cut from stone and his tone was even more serious than usual.

"Essentially, this free time is a unique opportunity. Do not waste it. I definitely won't."

Uraraka's mind began to whirl. Of course, how could she be so caught up in all of this drama? The event's of the previous night was soon forgotten as she began to think of new plans for her break. He was right; how could they relax with the League of Villains still out there! They should be training! When the League of Villains eventually strikes again, they need to be ready for whatever dastardly plans they pull.

Why were they even holding a dance in the first place?!

Deku raised his hand. "Sensei, what will you be doing during the break? What would you suggest us to do?"

Aizawa closed his eyes as the class waited with bated breath. What kind of grueling training was he going to put himself through?

Aizawa opened his eyes and spoke.

"After class, I plan on walking back to my apartment, crawling into bed, closing my eyes and not opening them again until I have to come back next week to teach"

…

What?

"I'd advise for you to do something along those lines."

What?!

"But sensei, shouldn't we train or try to improve our quirks at all?"

"No."

"But-"

"Midoriya, do you think rest isn't productive?"

Deku paused.

"All of you, perhaps more than most, need to realize this. The human body needs rest. If you push it too far you're liable to tear a muscle and put your entire career at risk. But the more important thing and the reason UA gives you a full week is to rest your spirit.

"Mental fatigue, stress, dissociation, depression, paranoia. All common among pro heroes. Pros have to deal with the worst the world throws at them - villain attacks, natural disasters, accidents - and are expected to come out on top and save the day. Every day, pros deal with these situations. If they aren't careful, then no matter who they are, it can break them.

"To stop this, heroes need time to relax, rest, recuperate and sometimes remind themselves why they became a hero in the first place. Everyone needs to rest. Even All Might had to take breaks."

Uraraka sat back as she digested his words. What Aizawa said made complete sense. How could you save someone if you needed to be saved yourself?

It was comforting to know that she was encouraged to take some time for herself and relax. She smiled as she thought about how fun it will be to see her family and sleep in for a change. It really was going to be a nice break.

"What about the dance?" Hagakure asked.

Except that. That was not going to be nice. That was going to be very not nice.

"The Principal decided that a dance would be a good way for students to relax and strengthen their bonds."

Uraraka had a feeling the "Dekubowl" wasn't what the Principal had in mind.

"Which brings me to our last subject for today. The dance will be held Christmas Eve in the courtyard in front of the main school entrance. All of you will help with preparations for the dance. You will be assigned to one of two teams: one to help with decorating the tree and another to help with decorations of the courtyard. Any questions?"

"Will you be at the dance sensei?" Tsuyu asked.

"I will be sleeping," Aizawa replied flatly. "If there are no more questions, Iida and Yaoyorozu will be assigning the teams."

Iida and Yaoyorozu walked up to the front of the class as Aizawa stepped aside. Iida took the podium holding a piece of paper.

"We have already divided you into two teams and provided tasks for each you based on your abilities. For team one-"

Todoroki interrupted by raising his hand. "Iida, I have a question."

"Of course, Todoroki!"

"Did you or Yaoyorozu come up with the team assignments?"

"Yaoyorozu divided up the class and I assigned each of your tasks based on your quirks."

"And is Yaoyorozu on the same team as Midoriya?"

Oh, no.

Deku looked at Todoroki in confusion.

Oh, double no.

Iida looked at the paper. "Yes, she is-"

"And are Jiro, Hagakure, Uraraka and me on the other team?"

Hagakure gasped and Jiro's jaw dropped.

Oh triple no.

The class started to murmur. Sero said something to Ashido that made her break out laughing. Kirishima shook his head in shame while Bakugo had an amused smirk printed on his face. Tsuyu looked disappointed, a look shared by the rest of the class. The rest of the class except Mineta and Kaminari who continued to glare daggers at Deku. And Aoyama as well. He continued to twinkle.

Although, they did seem to be less twinkly than usual.

It was Deku that scared her the most, however. His eyes started to widen as his eyes slowly moved from Todoroki to Hagakure and then to Jiro, his face rapidly reddening as he realized what he thought was a dream, maybe wasn't a dream. His eyes finally landed on hers, his eyes wide as saucers and his face so pink it was nearly fluorescent. It seemed like he was expecting her to laugh off his suspicions, telling him that it was just a coincidence and that he shouldn't worry about it and he was silly for thinking such a thing.

Uraraka could have done that.

But she didn't.

She instead hid her profusely blushing face in her arms leaving a small gap to peek at Deku and see his reaction.

He was sweating profusely and shaking in his chair.

All of the no.

Jiro stood up and slammed her hands on the desk. "Momo, what the hell?"

Iida turned to Yaoyorozu who withered behind him. "Yaoyorozu, how could you use your power for such corruption?"

"I-I didn't think-"

"Iida, what did Yaoyorozu do?" Aizawa asked suddenly with a face cut from stone.

All noise in the room died as everyone realized that their teacher was still in the room. A teacher who had just overheard the Vice Class Rep being accused of corruption by the Class Rep. Uraraka wasn't worried, however. Iida would clear the situation up and make it so Yaoyorozu wouldn't get in trouble for such a small thing.

Iida pushed his glasses up into his face. "Yaoyorozu ruined the sanctity of this institution by using her power to devise a situation where she would succeed over her fellow classmates."

Or he would be Iida and take it to the logical extreme.

Yaoyorozu whimpered.

"That is a serious offense, unbecoming of a hero. How was she going to pull that off?"

"By allowing her to spend more time with Midoriya so that she may convince him to go to the dance with her."

…

There was a small moment of silence where, at least Uraraka thought, Aizawa was considering strangling someone. She had no idea who but potentially everyone within a fifty-yard radius was a good guess.

"What are you talking about Iida?"

Iida looked at her with a conflicted expression. Uraraka shook her head frantically back. Iida looked at Deku. Deku stared at Iida with an intensity he normally reserved for All Might. Iida looked back at her and flashed her a grin before turning to Aizawa.

Uraraka sighed in relief. Ok good, he got the message.

"Sir, Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Hagakure, Todoroki and Uraraka are all competing for Midoriya's affections and wish to take him to the dance."

IIDA WHY?!

Uraraka frantically looked back at Deku who's soul had departed his body; off on a journey to find safer and saner lands. She looked back Iida accusingly.

Iida gave her a thumbs up cluing Uraraka immediately to his intentions: Midoriya was already in class so even if he passed out he'd be fine. Just her luck he'd accidentally use her own good idea against her.

It was at that moment Uraraka noticed something strange: why was no one was commenting on Iida's remarks? Also, did it just get colder in here or was it just her?

Oh.

Uraraka discovered why no one was saying anything and why there was an ominous chill crawling it's way up her spine.

Some might have described it as a black hole. Uraraka was quite knowledgeable about black holes. With her quirk being gravity, she's always had an interest in the field of astrophysics. Her interest was why Thirteen was one of her favorite heroes. The hero even gave her something of a demonstration when Aoyama and she faced off against Thirteen for their end-of-term exam. A black hole was essentially a void that would suck in all matter, even time itself!

What she discovered wasn't a black hole.

It was an abyss.

An abyss that they all stared into and, to their immense fear, stared back at them. It left them all with nothing but an overwhelming sense of dread and ominous foreboding. Although it didn't suck the light out of the room, it felt like it did and somehow that made it all the worse. It was by far the most terrifying thing Uraraka had seen in her life.

An abyss created by Aizawa's haunting expression.

"I don't get paid enough to deal with this."

Somehow, Kaminari was able to escape the abyss' influence and raised his hand. Uraraka chalked it up to his brain short-circuiting again.

"I thought UA teachers had one of the highest paying jobs in Japan?"

Aizawa's head snapped at Kaminari, focusing all of the power abyss onto him.

"All the money in the world is not enough."

"A-ah. I see. W-when you put it that way…"

Aizawa sighed a deep sigh that spoke of someone frustrated with life, the afterlife and all of creation.

"Midoriya!"

Deku snapped back to attention. "Yes, Sensei!"

"Who are you taking to the dance?"

Deku was taken back. "I-I don't know. I d-didn't even know anyone liked me in that way before and I thought last night was just all a dream. But if I were to take someone to the dance then I might hurt the other's feelings so then I would need to find a way to let everyone else down gently and then what about after the dance that's something I need to consider as well…" Deku continued to mumble as he desperately tried to fumble a solution.

So cute!

Uraraka had to suppress an inner "squee" and instead settled for appreciating her crush's adorableness.

It was then she noticed a small but discouraging detail:

Half of the class was doing the same.

Their ogling was interrupted by the sound of Aizawa's tired facepalm.

"Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Hagakure, Jiro, and Uraraka are on a different team than Midoriya. Iida, you're not involved in this right?"

"Yes, sir! Although I too have feelings for Midoriya, I have chosen to forgo them in order to not risk damaging our friendship."

Deku gasped and stared at Iida. Then went back to mumbling with increased intensity.

Aizawa gave Iida a long, flat look.

"Fine. You will assign the teams and the tasks." He then looked to the Dekubowl participants. "This dispute will not affect your work in class after the break. If you think it will, don't bother coming back."

With that Aizawa walked out of the class and shut the door, leaving behind a whirlwind of chaos, hormones, and stunned silence.

"Now, let's get to the team assignments!" Iida stated enthusiastically.

Oh, joy.

* * *

 **And that's chapter 2!**

 **Deku is now in on the action and doesn't know how to deal. Uraraka also does not know how to deal. Aoyama knows though. When all else fails: sparkle.**

 **Special thanks to my beta/ girlfriend/ best thing that ever happened to me for helping me grow as a writer. You have her to thank for the longer chapter. I was originally going to end it before they got to class, but she thought it would do better for the chapter arc for it to end with the class scene. She's pretty awesome.**

 **Please review with any thoughts or criticisms and as always, thank you for your support!**

 **-DorkyDesperado**


	3. Chapter 3

Try not to freak out. Try not to freak out. Try not to freak out.

Uraraka was freaking out.

This was mainly because of three reasons:

She was going to be assigned to a group where half of the people in it considered her a romantic rival.

If she didn't smooth things over with them before the end of the break she could find herself expelled from UA

Perhaps most importantly, one of her closest friends had just found out that she had a crush on him in what was perhaps the most embarrassing fashion.

She could not focus on Iida breaking down the team assignments. They passed through her like a blur.

Uraka looked over to Deku who was concentrating on his desk a little too hard. The still present blush on his cheeks made it obvious what he was thinking about. She felt a ping of pity towards him; he must feel so overwhelmed with the situation.

Part of her wondered what could have happened if things had gone differently. What would he have said if she had asked him out to the dance directly? As things stood now, she would most surely get rejected. There were too many other suitors all vying for a date with him, and Deku, even if he did reciprocate her feelings, wouldn't want to upset so many people, especially with Aizawa's threat weighing down their minds. He, like her, was probably trying to think of a solution to make everyone happy.

The least she could do would be to make his life easier.

Slowly, she tore off a piece of paper from her notebook and began to write a small message for Deku. She would have wanted to talk to him alone in a more private setting face-to-face but she knew the other four Dekubowl participants (she hated that this was now a thing) would misinterpret it and get even more angry at her.

No, with this private note she can clear things up with Deku and then talk with the other four individually. It would save her a lot of embarrassment and at this point, she doesn't think she could take anymore. She could deal with this in a nice civilized manner.

She slowly began to slide the note onto Deku's desk.

"Uraraka! Are you passing love notes in class!" Iida shouted from the front of the class.

Everyone turned to look at her.

Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, and Jiro glared at her.

"N-no it's not a love note!"

"Really? Then you wouldn't mind if I read it to everyone?" Iida gave her an accusing look.

"Yes, I do!"

The note floated away from her desk much to her horror and surprise.

"Too bad, Uraraka." Hagakure said, holding the note out on her invisible hand. "Besides, I think the rest of us want to get a scoop on the competition."

Uraraka's face was a scarlet red as she watched Hagakure handed the note off to Iida. Deku hid his face in his arms and slid down his chair, embarrassed to be the focus of all of the class conflict.

This could have gone a lot better.

"Iida, no!" she begged one last time.

"I'm sorry Uraraka but you must be considerate of your fellow competitors. No flirting during class hours!"

Don't put it like that!

Iida unfolded the note. "Deku, I'm so sorry but this is all a big misunderstanding. I'm not going to ask you… oh." Iida put the note back down on the podium and a long pause followed. His face spoke of guilt and embarrassment.

Good. He deserved it.

"Uraraka, is this true?" Iida began. "Do you not have feelings for Deku?"

Don't ask her that now! Not when he was right here!

Before she could say anything though, Kaminari raised his hand.

"So, does that mean she is fair game for the dance?" Kaminari asked.

Thankfully for her already tarnished dignity, Jiro stepped in and slapped Kaminai viciously across the head.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Don't be a sleaze."

"But Deku is getting all of the girls! How am I supposed to-"

Jiro slapped him across the head again.

"Ow! Ok, that's it! I'm throwing my support behind Hagakure!"

The entire class paused.

"What are you talking about Kaminari?"

"I was going to help you get a date with Deku, Jiro!" Deku slid further down in his chair. "But since you're being so mean to me, I'm gonna help Hagakure instead!"

"Yay! Team Invisible Girl for the win!" Hagakure jumped out of her chair, raising her uniform sleeve in the air.

"Wait, you can't form teams!" Jiro protested.

"Of course we can! I've seen Ashido do it all the time on trashy shojo forums-"

"Hey!"

"-why can't we do it in real life?"

"Enough!" Iida shouted bringing the chaos to a temporary standstill. "We can't divide the class like this! If we do then we cannot show our faces in front of Aizawa once the break is over!"

"Why don't we just let them murder each other over it?"

Everyone in the class turned to look at Bakugo, who leisurely lounged in his chair with an amused smirk on his face.

"Bakugo how can you be so heartless about your fellow classmates?!" Iida reprimanded

"Shut up, Four-Eyes! If they all want him so bad, then they should fight it out with everything they got! If you make them half-ass it, then they're just going to be whiny bitches about it once it's over."

Bakugo let out a huge laugh. "Plus, it's fun to see Deku freak out." Deku slid so far down his chair that he had left the chair entirely and was now hiding beneath his desk.

That is so mean!

"That is so mean!"

…

Thank you, Hagakure.

"You know what?" Jirou spoke in a teasing tone. "I bet he's just jealous that Midoriya has so many people pining for him when he can't get anyone to like him."

Before Bakugo could scream a retort an unexpected voice spoke up.

"As if! He's got a date with the manliest person here!"

Everyone turned to look at Kirishima, then back at Bakugo, then back at Kirishima.

Uraraka thanked whatever deity listened to her prayers.

"You sure you want to do that man? I'm not sure dating Bakugo of all people would be good for your health." Sero questioned.

"SHUT YOUR GODDAMN FACE TAPE-ARMS!"

"I-I think K-kachan has a point."

The small voice stopped the impending Bakugo rampage from breaking out as everyone's attention turned to Deku's desk in the middle of the room. There, Deku's raised hand stuck out from beneath it.

So, cute!

"You think so, Midoriya?" Yaoyorozu said.

Uraraka frustratingly noted that Deku blushed even harder at hearing Yaoyorozu address him. She tried to rationalize it as him just finding out about Yayoruzu's crush, but an equally frustrating part of her refused to believe it.

"Y-yeah." Deku took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "I would hate it if any of you had to leave UA over me. So, I would appreciate it if we could… um, s-settle this before the break ended."

"So then just pick someone and get it over with, Deku," Bakugo said mockingly.

"Umm, I-I don't want to hurt anyone's f-feelings."

"Then death battle it is!" Bakugo slammed his fist into his open palm with a vicious look on his face.

Before Deku could respond, Kirishima pumped his fists into the air. "Hell yeah! Dekubowl is officially on! What team is everyone going to be on?"

Huh, maybe them dating made more sense then she originally thought.

For a split second, an air of pure focus filled the room as Uraraka felt everyone's eyes dart around the room. Every single one of the Deku Bowl participants began looking for allies, the other classmates began searching for who they were going to put their own support behind. In a single second, the entire class room threatened to split apart at the seams as everyone decided which team they were going to be on.

"I already have the team assignments!" Iida declared with a proud look on his face.

Everyone stared at him in confusion.

"As stated earlier, I have put all of the participants of the Dekubowl on the same team and Midoriya on the other.."

Everyone groaned.

Oh, right. She forgot about the assignment for a second.

/-/

Awkwardly enough, Iida still assigned her to the group with all of the participants of the Dekubowl.

…

On second thought, it was awkward enough! It was plenty awkward!

Iida had put himself in the same group to help mediate any disputes and keep everyone focused on the tasks at hand. Unfortunately for everyone involved, many of the Dekubowl participants proved quite talented at multitasking and were able to follow Iida's remarks while still glaring at the everyone else.

Todoroki's glares never left their target. Even when Iida questioned him to make sure he was still paying attention, Todoroki was able to repeat everything back with perfect precision, all without ever breaking his cold, haunting glare. Uraraka had become quite familiar with it, considering it was still focused on her!

She had thrown in the towel already! Did he not get the super embarrassing memo!

Even aside from Todoroki being scary, the tension between everyone else there was so thick, she might have been able to make it float away with her quirk!

Wait, a second.

"Uraraka, why are you waving your arms around?" Iida asked.

Everyone turned to look at her. Todoroki continued glaring at her.

"No, reason."

Everyone turned back to Iida, who continued explaining his plans. Except for Todoroki.

"What do you want!" Uraraka begged with her eyes.

Cold, indifferent silence was Todoroki's reply.

Uraraka turned away from him and tried to focus on Iida explaining that they were in charge of decorating the Christmas tree. Iida had assigned her as the "muscle." Her role was to help others get closer to the top of the tree safely and to deliver some of the heavier decorations, like the giant star on the top. She giggled as she thought of herself in a dark suit, arms crossed, standing next to some gangster.

At least the assignment wouldn't be the worst. She was fortunate to have Tsuyu on her team. Over the course of the year, they'd become the best of friends, and it had only gotten stronger through their shared internship. Tsuyu would definitely be a great comfort with all of the drama going around. Uraraka had noticed Tsuyu giving her concerned glances ever since Iida read her note. It felt her heart warm up a little to have such a caring friend at her side. And Uraraka was going to need it during the next week. Especially since…

Uraraka gulped.

...she was going to have to pick a side in the Dekubowl.

Sure, she would love to stay out of it and she probably could if she really wanted to. But Deku was her friend! A friend she cared about deeply!

 _And maybe even loved a little_ but Uraraka was trying her best to ignore that fact.

Regardless of her own personal feelings, Deku was caught in the middle of a messy love… pentagon? A love hexagon? A sexago-

Nope! She was going to throw that Pandora's Box out of her mind right away.

Anyway, Deku was struggling, and she had to do everything she could to help him. And, if he had no idea who to pick, she might be able to pick someone for him. She knew he trusted her opinion on things so why shouldn't pick someone to be with him romantically?

A person that wasn't herself.

A person that wasn't herself going to the dance with Deku.

…

Uraraka shook her head and looked at each of the Dekubowl contestants. First was Todoroki. Todoroki at first glance would be the perfect candidate: smart, strong, a face so drop-dead gorgeous he could have won the beauty contest at the Cultural Festival. He also seemed to get along well with Deku considering they always eat together during lunch.

"Along with Iida!" her inner-hope pointed out. Which was surprising since she didn't think she had much left after the events of the past day.

Still, Uraraka had some hesitation for supporting Todoroki. For one, he is the reason Deku broke his arms during the Sports Festival; an incident Uraraka had not fully forgiven him for. There was also his cold demeanor which could be off-putting sometimes.

Like now, for instance.

She didn't even need to look at him to feel his chilling glare on her.

Uraraka moved on to the other participants. She threw out Hagakure immediately because of her… unique reason for liking Deku. She could go for Jiro which could be a good option. Jiro was a super cool girl that apparently had a crush on Deku longer than Uraraka had one. Which was interesting because Uraraka didn't remember the two of them interacting that often.

A tiny part of her wanted to support Jiro just to find out why she has a crush on Deku, but that part of her was immediately squashed when Uraraka noticed a small detail about her. It was something that Jiro didn't seem to notice herself.

Uraka giggled to herself. Well, Deku said he didn't want anyone to be hurt so maybe Jiro would be a bad call. That left…

"Iida these assignments are essentially the same as the ones we discussed earlier aside from Mineta and I switching teams." Yaoyorozu pointed out.

"Yes, well even though your assignments came from a place of debauchery, they were still sound suggestions with good reasoning. It was the reason I didn't catch them until Todoroki pointed them out to me."

"Momo is crafty like that. She'll make you think she has your back until she steals your crush away from you."

"Jiro, please! Do not insult your fellow classmate!"

"No, she has a point. Please, let her talk more about how Yaoyorozu is plotting to take Midoriya away from us." Todoroki and Jiro shared a small fistbump, a sign of camaraderie against a common enemy. The fistbump itself was an impressive feat considering Todoroki's eyes never left Uraraka.

Yaoyorozu stood up.

The tension in the room reached a fever pitch as she walked over to Jiro and Todoroki. Everyone in the room's eyes widened as violence threatened to break out. For the first time, Todoroki's eyes tore away Uraraka and went to the approaching figure. Iida quickly stood up and made to stop Yaoyozuro before she could do anything rash. He wasn't fast enough and couldn't stop her from doing something that shocked everyone there:

She bowed.

"I apologize for my disrespectful behavior! I did a dishonor to myself and most importantly to both of you; two people who I respect and admire greatly! These feelings are new and difficult for me to deal with and I am unsure how to approach them. I tried reading some material on the matter but it has not led to the desired effect. I am so sorry and I hope you could find it in either of your hearts to forgive me."

Tears began to fall from her face as she spoke. Jiro's face was frozen in shock before it melted to one of pity for her friend.

Jiro put her arm on Yaoyorozu's shoulder and smiled at her comfortably. "It's okay, Momo. I didn't realize this whole love thing was new to you. Don't worry, we're still going to be friends after this is done, right Todoroki?"

Todoroki shifted his glance back to Uraraka without changing at all, much to her chagrin.

"You are simply chasing after what you desire in any way you can. I can respect that much like I respect you as a person. I was never upset at your actions, just frustrated at their effectiveness."

So why was he upset at her?!

"Kyoka.. Todoroki.." Yaoyorozu cleared the tears away from her eyes and smiled.

"I am so proud of the three of you! I am so happy to be your representative!" Tears freely fell from Iida's smiling face, breaking the tension in the room with the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

"Yaoyorozu, you mentioned some reading material you got your strategies from. What were they?" Todoroki asked.

"I borrowed some shoujo magazines from Ashido."

"Really? What were their titles?"

Jiro cut in. "No. Please don't get any more love advice from shoujo manga. Especially not the kinds Ashido reads."

"Well then, what titles would you recommend Jiro?"

Jiro pinched the bridge of her nose.

"This is so sweet!" Hagakure cheered.

It was, wasn't it?

Uraraka had a small smile on her face as she looked at Yaoyorozu. Directly going up to her friends and admitting her mistakes was probably the best way to go about things and Uraraka respected that Yaoyorozu was able to do that. And if she was being a little honest with herself, a little jealous that she had difficulty doing the same.

Yaoyorozu was someone Uraraka had always admired as a person. Aside from being one of the prettiest girls in the school, Yaoyorozu was super smart and capable, always willing to lend a hand to anyone, especially her peers. She came from a really rich family but never looked down on anyone who didn't have the same upbringing she had. In fact, she went out of her way to share the things she loved most with her friends. Yaoyorozu was the textbook definition of a perfect girl.

A perfect girl for a perfect guy like Deku.

Uraraka had found her team.

"Ribbit. Now that's all cleared up. Maybe we should all take a bit of a break to air things out?"

"An excellent idea Asui! We've actually covered most of what we need so we should adjourn. I will see you all at the dorms. Make good use of your time to rest and relax!" Iida's announced as he walked back to his desk.

Hagakure jumped up. "And don't forget to flirt and fight over Midoriya!" She turned and faced her three other rivals. "I know you haven't fully acknowledged my feelings yet. But I'll show you just how determined I am to win Midoriya's heart!"

Jiro smiled back at her with a competitive glare. "Bring it Hagakure! We'll see who makes it out on top!"

Yaoyozuro wiped her arm across her face drying the last of her tears. When she was done, she too gave Hagakure a friendly, competitive glare.

Todoroki began to walk out of the room, finally breaking his glare as he gave Hagakure a short nod. "I look forward to seeing your efforts, Hagakure." He picked up his stuff and proceeded to exit the room, walking just past Uraraka's desk.

"I can always respect anyone actually willing to try." Todoroki coldly stated as he walked by, just loud enough for Uraraka to hear.

Ouch.

She stayed rooted to her seat as everyone else filed out of the class. Tsuyu saw her conflicted expression and walked up to her. "Are you sure you're making the right decision?"

No.

"What are you talking about Tsuyu? I am not conflicted over anything. I am in love with my job! Wouldn't Yaoyorozu be good for Deku. I THINK SHE WOULD BE GREAT FOR DEKU!" Uraraka barked a laugh, eyes as wide as the moon.

Tsuyu looked even more concerned. "If you say so, ribbit. Why don't we get you some fresh air? You look like you could need it, ribbit."

Now that was an idea she could get behind.

As they left, Uraraka mind was fully focused on her next steps. She was going to have to meet with Yaoyorozu and explain her intentions. If Uraraka could get Yaoyorozu together with Deku, she would be able to solve his current dilemma. Now, if she could shut out that tiny voice telling her that this was a bad idea she would be perfect.

Uraraka was so distracted by her thoughts she failed to notice another person in the classroom watching her leave.

Someone watching her with a dazzlingly disappointed expression.

* * *

 **Shorter chapter this week since my idea for the next scenes would have made this chapter a little too long.**

 **As always, please leave any feedback you can!**

 **-Dorky Desperado**


	4. Chapter 4

It didn't take long for Uraraka to find Yaoyorozu.

There were only three places their studious Vice Representative could be found on the UA campus outside of class. Yaoyorozu often liked to hang out with the rest of the class in the common room, usually with some mug of expensive and rare tea her mother decided to send her in one of her biweekly care packages.

Biweekly as in twice a week of course. Uraraka didn't know much about Yaoyorozu's mom, but to be able to send her daughter two extravagant (and that was putting it lightly) packages a week, she either had a lot of free time on her hands or had some kind of time quirk. Either way, it was a little sweet, if a little overbearing.

Yaoyorozu could, of course, be found in her room but if she was there, she was asleep. She didn't do much but sleep in her room. Which made perfect sense to Uraraka. If she also had a giant bed take up her entire floor plan, she probably wouldn't have enough room to get anything done but sleep. Or have super fun pillow fights.

...now there was an idea.

Uraraka shook her head as she tried to focus on her mission. She had already checked the common room, and it was only three in the afternoon so Yaoyorozu wasn't going to be in her room. That left only one place: the study room.

Uraraka arrived at the door to the study room and pushed it open. Much like everything else in their dorm, the study room was… a lot. In fact, it would probably be more accurate to call it a small library. There were nearly two dozen bookshelves filled to the brim with books lining the room and set up in rows in the middle. Most of them were texts relating to heroics and such, but there were additions made by the teachers as general reading. Midnight, Ectoplasm and even All Might had all added books of all kinds to their collection.

In the middle of the room were two rows of long desks and sitting in one of them sat Yaoyorozu. She had her back to Uraraka, leaning over whatever book she was reading. It was little wonder how she was able to maintain the top academic scores in the class with how much she read. Uraraka found it amusing that her friend's method of relaxing was the very same thing she'd do to get good grades or strengthen her quirk.

There was no doubt to Uraraka that Yaoyorozu would become a fantastic hero in time. One of the many reasons she would make a good… partner for Midoriya.

Uraraka swallowed the ugly feeling in her chest and began to walk over to Yaoyorozu.

Yaoyorozu must have been heavily engrossed in whatever book she was reading. She didn't even notice Uraraka enter the room or sense her approach. Uraraka came up from behind her and leaned over her shoulder to see what had her friend so focused.

Oh, that is a very well-drawn man. And another well-drawn man. And... they were both…

Uraraka's brain died.

"Uhhh…."

Yaoyorozu's eyes exploded out of her skull as she slammed the book so hard it sounded like a gunshot fired off in the study hall. Red didn't just spread across Yayorozu's body, it just appeared as a giant, all-encompassing blush of embarrassment.

A tense moment of silence followed.

"It's for research," Yaoyorozu stated forcefully.

"Uhhh…."

"It's research about Todoroki."

"Uhhh….."

"With Midoriya I mean!" Yayorozu's head snapped toward Uraraka's in panic.

"..."

Yayorozu's eyes became as wide a saucers as she realized what she just uttered. Her face turned so red it looked like it might melt from the heat.

"I-I umm. I wasn't fantasizing about them! I was… just trying to better imagine how Todoroki would seduce Midoriya so that I can better prepare for it. Yes! That is what I was doing!" Yaoyorozu let out a might laugh that nearly bordered on hysteria.

"And this... is just inspiration! Yep! You know me, Uraraka. I always learn best by reading things."

Uraraka stared at Yaoyorozu for a long moment.

"So, you wanted to know how Todoroki would flirt with Deku. And you read… this and imagined Deku and Todoroki in the main characters place?" Uraraka slowly explained.

"Yes."

"Isn't that just the same as-"

"No."

"But-"

"I was not fantasizing about Midoriya and Todoroki!" Yaoyorozu nearly shouted. Her lips grew into a strained smile and her eyes begged that they change the subject. "Now, what can I help you with, Uraraka?"

Uraraka's eyes widened as she remembered the original reason why she was there. "Oh! I wanted to tell you that I'm going to support you in The Dekubowl!"

Yaoyorozu stared at her in shock. "Really?"

"Yep!"

"Even when I was imagining him in a lustful relationship with another man?"

Huh, Uraraka didn't really consider the ramifications of Deku dating someone with a Yaoi fetish.

"Umm… yes? I think?"

"Oh, excellent! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Yaoyorozu grabbed Uraraka's hands and began to jump up and down rapidly. "You have no idea how lost I was in this whole thing!"

"Wait, really?"

Yaoyorozu nodded at her. "Of course! I have never even had a crush on someone before and my tutors only went through the…" Yaoyorozu blushed. "biological implications of romantic relationships. But I was never taught on courting! I tried looking for books on the topic but we have nothing in here!"

"I'd normally go to Kyoka for advice but she is my direct competition. And when I asked Ashido for help, she recommended…" Yaoyorozu looked back at her book in shame. "some less than appropriate titles."

"I-I see…" Yaoyorozu still read them, though.

"I was so lost and overwhelmed, but with you helping me I have someone else I can ask for information! A girl who doesn't have a crush on Midoriya!"

Yayyy.

"But Yaoyorozu, I don't really have that much experience with dating." Uraraka scratched the back of her knack with a small nervous chuckle. "To be honest, I haven't even been on one date."

"Hmm, that's true." Yaoyorozu held her chin in thought. A moment later she looked up with bright eyes. "However, that could be the best advantage of all!"

"How is that an advantage?"

Yaoyorozu rushed up to Uraraka and grabbed her shoulders.

"Uraraka, will you go on a date with me?"

"Bwah?"

/-/

This was not how Uraraka imagined her first date.

Sure, she used to have staple fantasies of dating someone super famous and going out on a romantic whirlwind to somewhere crazy like… she didn't even know. Whatever her ten-year-old self-imagined at the time, something vaguely Tokyo mixed with NYC and Paris.

Nowadays though, she found herself drawn to the more normal stuff. A nice meal where she could talk with the person and maybe some fun activity like bowling or maybe even an arcade.

In some of her more private moments, so private she wouldn't even tell herself on most days, Uraraka often imagined herself prodding Deku along and giving him helpful hints as he bashful fumbled his way through trying to make sure she was having a good time. All the while being unaware that all she needed to have a good time was to spend time with him.

…

She may have put more thought into it than she had intended to.

Either way, going on a date with another girl so that said girl could be ready for going on a date with their crush, who just so happened to be the same person she also had a crush on, was not what she expected for her first date.

…Gosh. what was her life?

Uraraka found herself in a modest, dark pink dress standing in front of the UA dormitory with a small, matching, patent leather clutch she got at a discount store. It was nice and class but wasn't anything too fancy that she couldn't dress down if she really needed to. Her outfit should get her through whatever Yaoyorozu had in mind.

Yaoyorozu was frustratingly vague on the details. After Uraraka agreed, she squee'd and told her told her to dress for a nice dinner and to be ready in two hours before she ran upstairs to prepare herself. Still, it gave Uraraka plenty of time to shower, get dressed and ready herself for her date.

She was fortunate enough no one had seen her in her dress otherwise she knew there would be no end to the fountain of questions.

"Going on a date, mademoiselle?"

Why did she tempt fate?

Uraraka jumped and turned around to find Aoyama standing in the courtyard, twinkling in the dusk.

Aoyama was someone Uraraka could never really get a reading on. He always seemed so silly in class but according to Deku and Iida, seemed to have a caring and thoughtful side to him. In fact, Deku and Aoyama have been spending a lot more time around each other recently so there had to be something nice about him.

At the moment though, he wasn't high on the list of people she wanted to talk to right now. Primarily because Aoyama was the first person to point out Uraraka's feelings for Deku. Before Uraraka was even aware of her feelings in the first place!

"Umm, no, not really. I'm just helping out Yaoyorozu with something."

"Is this something to do with the Dekubowl?"

Uraraka gave him a startled look. Was it that obvious?

"Have fun tonight, Uraraka. Although, I think you'd have more fun going with someone else."

"W-what do you mean?"

She knew what he meant. And she had a suspicion he knew that too although he didn't say it. He simply smiled at her.

"Adieu, mademoiselle." He gave a short bow and walked up the stairs back into the dorm, leaving her nervous and fidgeting with her dress.

Okay, that was a little strange.

Still, she had a date to focus on! She couldn't let a little weirdness knock off her feet.

The door to their dorm slammed open. In the walkway stood Yaoyorozu, dressed in a perfectly tailored, velvet, burgundy tuxedo. Her hair was still done in her usual ponytail, showing off her golden earrings. In her arms held a bouquet of bright red roses that she held in an almost dramatic fashion along with a heart-shaped box that was surely filled with chocolates. Yaoyorozu looked everything like a prince from a fairytale.

Her eyes fell on Uraraka with a confident smirk, hiding all sorts of secrets that made Uraraka sweat.

...

Out of nervousness, of course.

"Hello, my sweet. Are you ready for our date?" Yaoyorozu said it a deep, almost husky voice that was obviously being put on.

Ok, this was enough weirdness to knock her off her feet. What was even happening? Was Yaoyorozu planning doing this to Deku as well? Where did she even come up with the idea to do something so out of character?

Oh, no.

It hit Uraraka like a ton of bricks. Or perhaps more appropriately, it hit her like a harem of hauntingly beautiful, half-naked men.

The manga. Yaoyorozu was acting exactly like a princely type from some shojo manga!

Escape plan! She needed an escape plan! Evac, SOS, May Day the SS Uravity was going down!

"Your flowers and chocolates, my darling. I'm sorry I couldn't find anything nearly as captivating as your eyes," Yaoyorozu said with a wink.

"Gwaaaa…." Did she just drool? Oh god, her feelings were complicated enough already! This was NOT the awakening she needed right now!

"I see I have left you speechless with my charm."

No, no, no! That is not what happened!

"Do not worry, my dear!" Yaoyorozu pulled Uraraka to her side and pointed dramatically to the sky.

"Tonight the sky's the limit! I already have everything planned for you! Now let us depart! We have reservations to make. The limousine awaits."

Oh, dear. She was not prepared for this. How could she prepare for this! Uraraka knew exactly what was going on. This was meant to be for Midoriya. Midoriya, the shy nerdy type who fainted when he found out multiple people were in love with him. He would have no idea what to do on a first date!

And who are the shy nerdy types who didn't have a clue paired with in shojo?

The suave, romantic, rich boy!

Uraraka looked up at Yaoyorozu who held her firmly at her side as they walked toward UA's gates. There was a confident look in her eyes and that same damning smirk on her lips. Yaoyorozu knew exactly what she was doing and therein laid the problem:

Uraraka had no idea how to handle this!

An epiphany struck Uraraka; Deku wouldn't know how to handle this either.

As weird as this whole situation was, this was probably good practice. Since she had no dating experience herself, she might actually be the perfect person to try this out on. She'd react to things in a way that, while probably not exactly the same, could be similar enough to Deku's so that Yaoyorozu could better prepare.

Maybe she should just play along with it? If she was completely honest with herself, it would be kind of nice to pretend to be on a date with the childhood dream archetype. She even was going to get to ride in-

"Wait, did you say limousine?"

As if summoned by her words, a long, jet black limousine drove up to them as they exited UA's front gates. Uraraka had only seen limousines in movies and didn't really know what to expect from one. To her, they always seemed like someone took a luxury car and decided, "how can I make this even more ridiculous? I know! Let's double the length and make it super impractical!" Still, as Yaoyorozu opened the door and let her in (like the perfect gentleman she was pretending to be) she was starting to get the appeal.

Wonderfully soft leather chairs lined the interior of the car. Uraraka thought she knew what leather was supposed to feel like but these chairs threw those expectations out of the tinted windows. It was intimately lit in dark purple, so that it looked like a Tunnel of Love ride at an amusement park. The driver's side was blocked by a tinted partition, and in front of it sat a surprisingly large hot tub.

Uraraka desperately hoped the hot tub was just included in the limousine Yaoyorozu ordered and that she wasn't planning on them getting in.

Yaoyorozu sat down next to her and gave her a small smile as she pushed a small button hidden underneath a cushion. The cushion began to rise, revealing a hidden compartment. Inside it held two chilled glasses and a large bottle. Yaoyorozu grabbed the bottle and one of the glasses in a small flourish and held it out to her.

"Champagne?" Yaoyorozu offered.

"I- I'm underaged. You're underaged too, Yaoyorozu."

It was like a switch flipped.

"Oh, I know! I've read that boys tended to like "delinquent types" so I tried to add a little in. Don't worry, this is just apple cider. Do you think it was too much though? Do you think Midoriya would like it?"

Yaoyorozu had changed back to her usual self so instantaneously it gave Uraraka a feeling of whiplash. Wow, that was honestly a little impressive how easily she did that. Deku told her about how they went undercover at Camino and Uraraka had her doubts about how effective they would have been, but Yaoyorozu shoved away those doubts entirely.

...At least for herself. Iida couldn't act his way through a primary school play and she didn't have high hopes for Deku either.

"I don't think Midoriya would appreciate breaking the law very much." Uraraka paused, considering a thought. "Although, he might like the cider."

Yaoyorozu nodded and pulled a small notebook out of her tuxedo jacket and began to jot down notes.

"You're probably right. With all that we've gone through, the last thing Midoriya would be attracted to is someone who broke the law so flippantly." Yaoyorozu looked back up at Uraraka with eyes filled delight and a bright smile to back it up. "Isn't this so fun! I've never had a chance to act like this before and all of the… material I've read was very descriptive on what to do!"

A little too descriptive, probably.

Still, seeing Yaoyorozu be Yaoyorozu again reminded Uraraka that it was all an act, and gave her a huge amount of comfort. She really felt like she could get through tonight and maybe even have a fun time doing so. Unfortunately, it also made Uraraka realize one unfortunate detail:

She wasn't going on a date with Yaoyorozu.

"Umm, Yaoyorozu?"

In an instant, the notebook disappeared and, with it, Yaoyorozu. In their place, the prince returned in all of their suave, dramatic glory and gently cupped their hand against Uraraka's cheek, igniting a fire across her face.

"What is it, my sweet?" Yaoyorozu asked in that damned husky voice of hers. It didn't even sound that good! Why was it making her feel this way!?

"Blarghrll."

To be honest that was probably going to be the best answer Uraraka was going to get.

Yaoyorozu gave her a curious look before the car came to a stop. "Ah, we must have arrived. Allow me to get the door for you." She stepped out of the door and gently led Uraraka out of the limousine, hand-in-hand. "I apologize for not saying so earlier, but that dress makes you look absolutely stunning. It's going to be difficult to look away from you tonight."

Uraraka nervously giggled madly in response. She wasn't very used to getting lavish compliments from handsome women in gorgeous tuxedos that probably cost more than three month's rent. The dress Uraraka wore was on clearance from a nearby department store! Trying to avoid embarrassing herself further, she pointedly looked away from Yaoyorozu at the restaurant they were supposed to be dining out.

And had a mini freak out.

"We're having dinner at Sorina?! This is supposed to be the best restaurant in the entire world!"

"Only the absolute best would be appropriate for someone as wonderful as you."

Uraraka hoped their meal wouldn't have a lot of fat, because she was getting buttered up enough!

Still, it was unbelievable that they would be having dinner here. Uraraka once saw a short documentary about the restaurant and fell in love with it. Two of the best chefs in the world married each other and decided to run a restaurant as a symbol of their devotion to one another. It was meant to serve gourmet dining food and was priced like normal dining food to make it more accessible. Unfortunately, this made it even harder to get a table there as since the demand was so high.

"How did you manage to reserve a table? I thought they didn't take reservations?"

Yaoyorozu gave her a sly smile. "They don't usually. But they are family friends and when I told them why I wanted to dine here, they made a special exception."

Wow, it really does pay to be rich. Uraraka originally wanted to make money so that she could give her parents a comfortable life; but now she might have to add "awesome, rich, friends" to the list.

A large amount of frustrated and envious glares followed her as Yaoyorozu led her past the front of the line that stretched around the block. She felt a pang of guilt hit her as she looked at the line.

Yaoyorozu must have caught her gaze because she gave her a comforting smile. "Don't worry, Uraraka. We're not taking a table away from anyone here. They actually set up something special just for the two of us."

Now that brought a blush to Uraraka's face.

The server passed the door greeted them with a warm smile. "Miss Yaoyorozu, welcome to Sorina's. Your table is ready in the back office."

Back office?

"Thank you. Uraraka, come with me." Yaoyorozu began to lead her through the restaurant.

Uraraka had seen Sorina on the documentary, but seeing it in real life was an entirely new experience. It had an almost homely feel that instinctively made her grin. The servers chatted leisurely with all their customers as if they were regulars, while patrons laughed and freely chatted. It was noisy and a little chaotic but it made Uraraka feel comfortable which was impressive coming from a restaurant as famous as this.

"Yaoyorozu, why are we going to the back office?"

"Well, as you know, Sorina doesn't take reservations. However, as a special favor to friends, they'll sometimes convert their back office into a private dining room."

"Really?"

"Yes. And, as a special treat, they've even decorated it on my request."

Wow, Yaoyorozu was pulling all of the stops. "And what did you request?"

They stopped outside of a door in the back of the restaurant. "Well, for tonight, I will be treating you as you deserve to be treated, my fair princess," Yaoyorozu added with a bow.

...stop blushing face!

"And as your doting prince, there is only one place fit for royalty to dine in. Uraraka, I welcome you," Yaoyorozu opened the door and dramatically gestured inside. "To our lovely… D-DUNGEON?!"

Yaoyorozu's and Uraraka's jaws dropped to the floor. Inside, the room was lined with wallpaper designed to make it look like stone walls, dark tapestries hung from the wall and their dining table looked more like a torture device than an actual dining table. All over the room, red candles were lit, giving the room an oppressive tint.

"Umm, Yaoyorozu?"

"I-I requested it to look like a castle…"

"Oh. Umm. It's nice?" Uraraka winced as she said it earning a deep sigh from Yaoyorozu.

As they sat down, Uraraka noticed something new about Yaoyorozu that nearly made her break out in laughter. Yaoyorozu's princely demeanor and her burgundy red tuxedo, while charming before, now took on a completely new meaning in the surrounding decor.

Yaoyorozu looked and sounded like a vampire.

"Hmm, I wonder what we're going to have a bite of today?"

Oh Yayorozu, poor choice of words.

Uraraka broke out in a fit of giggle causing Yaoyorozu to look at her in confusion.

"Well, I'm sure you'd like to take a bite out of me but I don't think that's on the menu."

Yayorozu looked back at her in shock. "W-why would I do that? T-that's so scandalous!"

Uraraka's eyes widened as she realized how her words were misinterpreted. "N-no! Yaoyorozu, that's not-"

"Wait, are you suggesting that Midoriya would want me to…" Yaoyorozu's face grew a deep shade of red as her mind went to places Uraraka wouldn't dare tread.

Oh, no. Oh, no no no.

"You look like a vampire!" Uraraka blurted out.

"What?"

"T-he room along with how you're acting makes you look and sound like a vampire," Uraraka said as she stared at her feet. "I-I was making a joke earlier."

"Oh. Well, there were quite a few manga's I saw relating to romance with vampires. D-do you think I should-"

"No," Uraraka said immediately and forcefully. "I don't think Deku would want that."

"A-ah. I see. Well, maybe I should just drop the act during dinner."

"Y-yeah." Thankfully, Uraraka was spared any further embarrassment by the arrival of their first dish. Ok, that was super awkward. But still, they had the rest of their meal. There would be plenty of time for her and Yaoyorozu to talk Deku strategy.

Uraraka took a bite.

Her existence exploded in a chaotic swirl of euphoria.

It was like a roller coaster of experiences began to rush through her all at once. She experienced her first love, her first heartbreak and the feeling of soft lips on a cool summer afternoon.

Uraraka felt the tight warm embrace of her mother and the encouraging advice of her father to keep making them proud. Tears fell from her face as she sat on top of the Tokyo Tower watching the brilliant hues of the sun change as the moon took its place.

She felt the universe begin and end in a swirl of brilliant colors on a canvas painting she made when she was a child. A soft, singing voice began to call her. It asked if she enjoyed her time there. Did she? Did she enjoy her life from her birth to her death? Did she even live enough life to be able to properly judge that? How would she know if she enjoyed her meal?

Wait, meal?

Her existence snapped back to reality as she stared at an empty plate before her. Huh, that was odd. She didn't remember finishing her plate. It was really good though if a little small.

"So, Uraraka, are you ready to head back?"

"Huh, leave? Didn't we just get here?"

Yaoyorozu gave her a teasing smile. "We've been here for an hour and a half."

"What?! How?"

"Well, you did have seven courses."

Seven. Courses.

Uraraka eyes spun in her head as she tried processed what she just heard. She failed.

Yaoyorozu broke out of her character and began to break out in a fit of giggles. "Don't worry, it happens to most people their first time here. The food is just that good. It'll wear off on your second time."

Uraraka dazedly followed Yaoyorozu out of the restaurant and back into the limousine. "Ah, ok." She still had no idea what happened.

Yaoyorozu took out her notebook and looked at Uraraka excitingly. "Ok, how did I do?"

Uraraka remembered why she was there in the first place and quickly shook her head. She needed to clear her head of the lingering euphoria and tried to concentrate on her mission.

"Right. It didn't work."

"What part?" Yaoyorozu looked back with intense focus, her hand tightly gripped on a pencil.

"All of the parts."

A pregnant pause filled the limousine as Yaoyorozu stared frozen at Uraraka.

"Oh," Yaoyorozu said filled with the entire sound of her spirit shattering.

"T-that's not to say I didn't have a good time!" In fact, she might have had too good of a time.

"Do you think Midoriya wouldn't like it?" Yaoyorozu said with the tone of a kicked puppy.

Uraraka frantically waved her arms in front of her. "N-no, no! I actually think Deku would enjoy it as well!"

Yaoyorozu stared at her in confusion. "Then why didn't it work?"

"Because I didn't get to spend time with you tonight Yaoyorozu. I spent time with that weird, princely persona you put on. Deku's not going to want to go on a date with some random, made up person. He's going to want to spend time with someone he genuinely cares about. He'll want to go on a date with you, Yaoyorozu."

"Are you sure? Because, according to my research, romantic prospects change themselves frequently for the ones they are in love with."

Uraraka pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yaoyorozu, manga isn't like real life, no matter what Ashido tells you. There aren't princely types going after shy types. There isn't an estranged childhood friend that will come in and save the day and there aren't harems all chasing after one person."

…

"Well, Midoriya's an exception for that last one. But the rest are just tropes that are popular with readers. They don't really happen in the real world."

"I see." Yaoyorozu stared at the floor and let out a deep sigh. "That's a shame. I really have no idea what I'm doing here. I'm so out of my depth."

"I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."

Yaoyorozu looked up at her in shock. "No?"

"Well, yeah. I don't think any of us really know what we're doing. We're just figuring it out as we go."

"Is there someone you're in love with Uraraka?"

"NO!" Uraraka shouted causing Yaoyorozu to jump. "I-I mean, umm, not at this time…"

Yaoyorozu stared at her for a moment then looked back down at her feet. "Still, it is quite a lot to try and learn in such a short amount of time. Oh, why can't real life be like manga!? Some of the scenes depicted in them were so touching to read!"

"Well, that's not to say that some of those touching moment's don't happen in real life as well!"

"Really?" Yaoyorozu looked back up.

"Oh, yeah! Take Deku, for instance. Do you know about how he grew up thinking he didn't have a quirk?"

"No?"

"Well, his quirk developed really late so he thought he was quirkless. But he still wanted to be a hero more than anything! So he trained super hard, every day and studied everything he could about heroics! And look at him now! He's already one of the best heroes in our class! He even won the first round of the sports festival without using his quirk at all!"

"Yes, I suppose that's true."

"Oh! And during the entrance exams, he still didn't have control over his quirk. So he couldn't take down any robots fast enough to get any points! And I used my quirk too much and was all nauseated on the ground when the big robots worth zero points came out! But I couldn't move because I was so sick and was about to get trampled by the robots. And instead of running off to take out robots to actually give him points, he took out the robot coming towards me and saved my life even though it wouldn't get him any points!"

Yaoyorozu stared at her with a warm smile.

"Oh, and during the quirk apprehension test-"

"You really admire Midoriya, don't you?"

Uraraka stopped dead in her mental tracks and looked back at Yaoyorozu with wide eyes. "I-I mean, I do but t-that doesn't really mean much! I mean, h-he's just an inspiring person! That doesn't mean I have feelings for him or anything. HaHaHA." Uraraka felt a bead of sweat drop down her brow.

"Uh-huh." Yaoyorozu stared at her with a small smirk. Somehow, this smirk was even more frustrating than the prince one. UGH. "You know, Kyouka said something similar when she first told me about Midoriya."

That snapped Uraraka out of her thoughts. "She did?"

"Yeah, she did. It was really amusing seeing her react to it. She hid it well, but in private she always spoke so well of him."

Yaoyorozu looked at her with a big grin. "You know, I'm really enjoying this. I felt like we haven't had the chance to talk to each other one-on-one very much. I don't even know why you want to be a hero!"

"Oh, umm, well, you see…" Uraraka nervously began to scratch the back of her neck. "I sort of… want to make a bunch of money…"

"Really?!" Yaoyorozu leaned in completely fascinated.

The rest of the limousine was a relaxing affair. Instead of talking about their stressful romantic lives, they instead talked about their hero aspirations, their families and about school in general. Yaoyorozu was right, they didn't often get to spend a lot of time hanging around each other and it was nice. The ride flew by and they soon found themselves walking back to the dorms.

Yaoyorozu was a fascinating person to talk to. She had a wide breadth of knowledge and proved to be passionate about all sorts of various subject matter. And to Uraraka's excitement, one passion overlapped with her own.

"So what do you think about the possibility of there being a ninth planet in the solar system?" Uraraka gushed.

"I read about that! It seems likely and I wonder what they will end up naming it once it's found."

"Oh, I hope they call it, 'All Night' since we can't see it."

Yaoyorozu chuckled into her palm. "That would be quite amusing. I think All Might would be honored."

They arrived at the door to the dorms.

"Thank you so much for the lovely evening, my princess," Yaoyorozu bowed in an overly flamboyant manner earning a giggle from Uraraka.

"Thank you so much for dinner! Even if I can't really remember it. Oh! What's our next move in the Dekubowl?" Uraraka pumped her fist in the air. After spending all of this quality time with Yaoyorozu, she felt a lot more comfortable helping her win the Dekubowl.

It would hurt a little, yes, but she definitely picked the right person to back!

Yaoyorozu opened the door and paused in the doorway.

"You know, I think I'm actually going to drop out of the Dekubowl."

…

WHAT?!

"You were right, it's ok to not really know what you're doing when it comes to love. But I think I'd like to go at my own pace while I learn and the Dekubowl is just… too much in such a short amount of time."

That was understandable. But still!

Before Uraraka could say something, Yaoyorozu continued. "Besides, I think it'd be better to let Kyouka and..." Yaoyorozu gave her a knowing look. "Others take their chance at Midoriya in the meantime."

She flashed Uraraka a warm, bright smile. "Have a goodnight Uraraka and thank you for all of your help."

Yaoyorozu disappeared behind the door leaving a bewildered Uraraka rooted to the ground.

B-but her plans… she-she put so much work into them. Why?

"Did you have fun on your date, mademoiselle?"

Uraraka jumped and turned around to find Aoyama standing in the courtyard, twinkling in the night.

Huh, deja vu.

Aoyama stepped toward her, his face carved from bedazzled stone.

"I think we need to talk, Uraraka."

* * *

 **DUN DUN DUN. Cliff hanger! ** **Don't worry, I'm sure he's just going to want to talk about the weather and nothing important.******

 ** **Anyway, this chapter ended up being a lot longer than I though it would. I was actually planning on including the Aoyama conversation but it was already a lot longer than the other chapters. ** **Also, SPOILER WARNING for any anime only readers out there as the next chapter will have manga spoilers!********

 ** ** ** **Special thanks to my absolute badass girlfriend beta who helped correct my numerous errors. ** ** ** **As always, please leave any feedback you can and thank you for reading!  
-DorkyDesperado****************


	5. Chapter 5

**I am not dead!**

 **Also, manga spoilers. They are slight, only 167 and 168, but there might be two paragraphs that might not make much sense.**

* * *

"What do you want to talk about, Aoyama?" Uraraka asked nervously. Much like how a zebra would ask a crocodile what did they want for dinner.

A very sparkly and possibly French crocodile...

"I want to talk about the dance, mademoiselle," Aoyama asked with a fierce wink.

Wait.

WAIT.

Oh no. How could she not have foreseen this? She had publicly announced she wasn't in love with Deku and wasn't planning on asking him to the dance.

Which meant she didn't publicly have a date to the dance.

She was fair game.

Uraraka had always thought Aoyama had her pegged on her crush on Deku. But what if that wasn't the real case? What if he was just probing to find out if SHE had a crush on someone? What if the reason Aoyama has been hanging out with Deku so often recently, was because he was trying to get close to her by proxy!?

A quick memory flashed in her mind of their first day of class. Aoyama had been trying to talk to her then. She didn't think much of it then but what if?

Then that would mean Aoyama was trying to…

"I'm sorry but I don't want to go to the dance with you! I don't even know anything about France! I've never had brie and I don't even know why it's different than cheddar! I'm not old enough to drink wine!" Uraraka flailed her arms out as she vomited out her rejection.

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she just said. Uraraka quickly turned around and crouched on the floor, hiding away her shame ridden face.

Oh, god. She had just blurted out the most horrible rejection she could possibly think of. Stupid brain! Where was the option to turn off the panic button? Also, where was the option to turn off her dumb thought program!?

Uraraka let out a strangled, embarrassed wail.

"Brie is often much sweeter and is of a softer texture than cheddar."

Uraraka slowly turned around and faced Aoyama who still stood there with a sparkling smile on his face.

"Umm."

"I am not asking you out to the dance, mademoiselle."

"Oh, that's a relief." Uraraka's widened. Oh god, she just said that out loud! Oh no, Aoyama must be so offended!

"I completely understand! After all, it isn't so easy to live up to my sparkle!"

…

Just roll with it.

"Yeah! I didn't want to… umm, outshine you or something?"

"Outshine!? Oh, mademoiselle, I had no idea you had such humor in you!"

Hey, she could be shiny if she wanted to!

"So, why do you want to talk about the dance, Aoyama?"

"Ah, yes! I've noticed that you've lost your je ne sais quoi today."

"My je ne say what?"

"Your sparkle!"

Uraraka gave him a flat look. "I have literally no idea what you're talking about."

Aoyama gave her a coy look. "I think there's something you're not telling the truth about, Uraraka. Something to do with a particular classmate of ours, perhaps?"

Uraraka looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a jetliner.

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't like Midoriya! No, I like…" Oh no! Why did she say like! Quick, think of something!

"Gravity!" Brain, whyyyyy?

"Gravity? Wouldn't that go against your quirk?"

"It's complicated."

"It must be mademoiselle! Considering, I didn't bring up Midoriya at all."

Eep!

"Umm, well you see I, uhh." Uraraka fumbled for something to say; all the while, Aoyama continued to stare at her with that knowing smile of his.

Ugh, what's the point?

"Okay! I like Deku. Happy?"

"Oui, oui, Uraraka!"

"Are you even French?"

"Cela n'a pas d'importance!"

"...Ok?"

"And why are you not also competing in the Deku Bowl, Uraraka?"

Uraraka sighed as she stared at the floor with a forlorn expression. "Because it's not the right time. Things are too chaotic with everyone and I was hoping for my confession to be a little more… simple, you know?"

Uraraka started to twiddle with her index fingers. "I've never confessed to anyone before let alone date anyone. I just never imagined my first love would be so complicated."

"Many things in life are, Mademoiselle."

"Yeah, but I don't think many things are as complicated as this, Aoyama! Don't you think it might be easier if I hold my feelings back and wait till next time?"

"Easier, oui. But better? Non!"

"But I-"

"Did you know I was born with a defective quirk?"

Uraraka stared at Aoyama in shock. "D-defective?"

"I've had to constantly wear a support belt since I was born. If I didn't, then sometimes my navel laser would leak out!"

"Aoyama, I'm so sorry."

"Ne t'inquiètes pas! I am still here, am I not?" Aoyama flashed her a smile, causing her to do the same. "I could have done something else and it may have been easier. But I am most happy to have worked to get here!" He finished with a striking pose that caused Uraraka to laugh.

"Well, that's true. But I'd have to compete against Jiro and Hagakure, not to mention Todoroki! How am I supposed to compete against him? He's all pretty and mysterious and stuff. Also, why do you want me to compete so bad?"

Aoyama gave her a thumbs up. "Because if I cannot have him myself, then I want the next best thing for him!"

Wait, WHAT?

Just how many people in their class had a crush on Deku!

Her shock must have shown on her face because Aoyama broke out in a hearty laugh. "Of course I loved him, mademoiselle! Like me, he also had a quirk that did not suit his body. Still, I was taken back by how much he still fought to succeed! He is a very admirable person, Uraraka."

Well, that is true. Still, that begs the question:

"Then why are you not competing in the Deku Bowl yourself, Aoyama?"

"Ah, you see, I was rejected."

"You were!? When did you even ask him?"

"I never got the chance. For he rejected all of my advances."

Advances? Wait a minute…

"A-are you talking about the time you fed him cheese and left a bunch of cheese on his balcony in the middle of the night?"

"Oui! What better way to show my love than with the finest of delicacies? Unfortunately, he did not respond well to my flirtations and I surrendered my pursuit."

Yeah! Because Deku was super weirded out and had no idea what was going on!

"Aoyama, did you ever think that maybe Midoriya didn't realize you were flirting with him? I mean, he didn't realize Todoroki was asking him out until he explicitly said it."

…

Aoyama stared at her for a long moment.

"I didn't think about that."

Uraraka facepalmed.

"It's no matter, mademoiselle! For now, I will throw my efforts into your corner!"

"Look, Aoyama, I appreciate it but I still don't think-"

"Do you not love Midoriya, Uraraka?"

Uraraka's face burned a bright red.. "I-I mean, i-it's a little too soon and I don't even-"

"Do you want to go to the dance with him?"

"W-well yeah, I do but-"

"Do you not think he's fighting for?"

"Of course he is!"

"Then why aren't you?"

"Because! Because… well umm. I-I…" Uraraka hung her head low with a heavy sigh. "It's just so much. It's so overwhelming with everyone going after him as well."

Aoyama gave her a sparkling, gentle smile. "Do you know why I am choosing you over the others, Uraraka? I'm choosing you because I think you would be the best fit for him."

Uraraka looked up at Aoyama weakly. "You do?"

"Of course! Midoriya needs someone compassionate and above all, someone to encourage him to do his best. You constantly cheer him at every opportunity with a huge grin on your face and he's so thankful for it. And while I don't doubt the others feelings, love is a bit more than that!"

Aoyama gave her the biggest, most dazzling smile she had seen. "It's about becoming the best person you can be because the other person makes you want to. And Uraraka, I think you, more than anyone else, would do that for Midoriya!"

Uraraka stared at Aoyama in shock.

"Wow, that… that was really sweet, Aoyama." Uraraka never thought that Aoyama could be so… well, thoughtful.

"You don't have to tell me how brilliant my words are, mademoiselle. I am the one blessed with their creation after all!"

And like that, the moment was ruined.

Still, Aoyama was right, a relationship is just as much about the other person as it was herself. There had been a lot of talk about how much everyone loves Deku, but not a lot of talk about which person would be best for him. They'd all been too focused on their own feelings, and with Deku not having any idea what to do, they'd been given free rein to do so. But even if he doesn't know what he wants, Uraraka was close enough to Deku to know what he'd appreciate.

She looked over to Aoyama who looked back with that same sparkling smile.

Uraraka smiled back.

Deku would appreciate her.

"I'm in."

"Fabulous! Now, we must tell the world!"

"Wait, what?"

Before Uraraka could fully understand what was going on, Aoyama bent back and shot out his laser into the night sky, lighting up the area in a brilliant, embarrassing gleam.

Much to Uraraka's chagrin, it did not go unnoticed.

A figure burst out of a nearby bush with blistering speed. It was huge, a giant beast at least eight-foot tall on its hind-legs. Roaring muscles covered every inch of its body and its eyes burned red in the full moon. Snarling, vicious teeth made Uraraka's and Aoyama's eyes widen in terror.

They were in big trouble.

"WHAT ARE YOU STUDENTS WOOF, WOOF HOOOOOWWWLLLL!?"

Hound Dog waited for their response.

"Umm, I'm sorry sir, I don't-"

Hound Dog let out a low growl causing something to shatter.

Uraraka realized it was her new found courage.

Eep!

Iida burst through the front doors. "Aoyama! What is the mat-"

"BARK!" Hound Dog snapped at Iida instantly silencing him. Uraraka noticed that much of their class was huddled behind Iida with worry painted along their faces.

Hound Dog drew in a deep breath, calming him down.

"I am sorry, Class 1-A representative, Iida. I saw the light and quickly rushed over her to see what was the matter and only found these two engaged in, in, grrr, WOOF WOOF."

Wait, wait no! Don't woof there! Now it's going to sound like-

"Oh, oh, oh! Engaged in what?" Kaminari wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at the two of them.

Iida gasped in shock. "Uraraka! Are you and Aoyama?!"

"No!"

"Non! It would take someone much more brilliant to capture this shooting star!"

Uraraka gave him a flat look. Rude.

"Then why are you both out here?"

"WOOF WOOF BARK!"

"Umm, well I. Uhh."

Aoyama shot his hand up to the sky. "Everyone Uraraka has an announcement to make!"

Uraraka shot Aoyama betrayed look. Really? Here? NOW?

Everyone stared at her.

Uraraka stared back.

And stared.

And stared.

"HURRY BARK!"

Uraraka jumped. She quickly looked around for some sort of escape but instead found the eyes of Aoyama who stared at her with that same sparkling smile filled with confidence.

Confidence that she needed now more than ever.

Uraraka took in a deep breath.

"I'm joining the Deku Bowl."

"Uraraka! That makes me so happy!" Iida quickly rushed forward and spun Uraraka around in a tight hug.

"Oh come on! Is there any girl not involved in the Dekubowl?!" Kaminari let out a huge yelp of pain as Jiro slammed her fist on top of his head.

"Don't ruin the moment, Dumbnari."

"You know, I pulled out of the running, Kaminari," Yaoyorozu said.

"Wait, really?! Do you want to go to the dance with me?"

"Oh, no. I'm sorry Kaminari, but I don't like you in that way."

Kaminari collapsed to the ground, his spirit annihilated by Yaoyorozu's polite refusal.

Jiro gave her friend a sly smile. "I'm so happy we're friends, Momo."

Yaoyorozu returned the smile in kind. "Me too, Kyoka."

"I-Iida, this is really nice, but I think you're making me nauseous."

Iida gently put Uraraka back on the ground. "Oh! I am so sorry Uraraka! I just got carried away by my excitement at you finally admitting your true feelings!"

Uraraka gasped. "You mean, you knew?"

"Oh, no. I had no idea."

Uraraka nearly fell to the floor.

"Well, if you are entering the race now it must mean that you had these feelings before and were holding them back, yes?"

Uraraka regained her composure. "Uh, yes, actually. That's exactly what happened."

Iida smirked as he pushed up his glasses, causing them to gleam in the light.

What a dork. Uraraka laughed.

Asui slowly walked up to her. "If you don't my me asking, ribbit, what made you change your mind?"

Uraraka looked at Aoyama. "A good friend gave me some... fabulous advice."

Aoyama gave her a bedazzled thumbs up.

"Damn, this is going to affect the betting pool."

Everyone turned to look at Hound Dog.

"What are you talking about, sir?" Jiro said as her eyes narrowed in an accusatory manner.

Sweat began to drop from his fur.

"W-what? I-I d-didn't say...umm. Woof. Woof! Now you student, grr, better behave yourselves! Howl!"

The entire class stared at him.

Hound Dog coughed.

"Forget I said anything."

Hound Dog dove into the bushes and off into the night.

"You don't think the teachers are actually betting on our love lives, do you?" Hagakure asked.

"Of course not! This is UA! Our teacher would never do something so dishonorable!"

"Do you honestly believe that Iida?" Jiro asked.

Iida slammed his fist into his palm. "I will continue to do what I must in order to protect the sanctity of this institution!"

"So, no then?"

Iida fell to the floor wounded by the truth he fought so hard to deny.

"Right. Okay everyone we should all head back inside and head to sleep. It's getting late!" Yaoyorozu began to corral everyone back into the dorm.

As she walked back through the doors, she caught the eyes of Todoroki.

He gave her a short, curt nod.

She gave him a determined nod back.

A fated duel between two rivals.

…

Wow! This was actually pretty exciting! She hadn't felt this pumped since she got back from her internship with Gunmetal!

As they went began to make their ways back to their rooms, Uraraka noticed that they were missing a few classmates.

"Where's Deku at? And Kirishima and Bakugo?"

Tokoyami looked back at her. "Midoriya didn't want to cause any more trouble and got permission to stay with his mother for a few days. Kirishima and Bakugo went with him for reasons I was not able to gather."

"Oh, I see."

Uraraka went up in the elevator and walked back to her room in silence. Deku must have felt guilty about inadvertently causing so much trouble between their classmates. She should check and see if he was ok.

She pulled out her phone and opened her messaging app.

URARAKA: Hey Deku! I heard that you went home for a few days and I wanted to make sure you were ok.

She was about to put her phone away when she immediately got a text back. Huh, he must not be busy.

DEKU: Hi Uraraka.

I'm ok. It's a lot to take in haha. (o.o')

Is everyone ok?

URARAKA: Everyone is fine!

Just amped up about the Dekubowl lol!

DEKU: I don't know how I feel about that name…

URARAKA: I'm sorry…

DEKU: Don't be! (^.^)

I'm going to be trying to find a way to make things right!

URARAKA: You are?

DEKU: Yep! (^.^)

Uraraka smiled. Leave it to Deku to always be the big hero.

DEKU: It's why I invited Kirishima and Bakugo over.

For guy advice.

URARAKA: lol. How's that going?!

DEKU: Umm.

…

It's going lol. (^.^')

They make a cute couple though.

URARAKA: Really! OMG that's amazing!

DEKU: I know right!

Whoops. GTG.

Bakugo is yelling at me to get off of my phone before he blows it up.

(0.0)

URARAKA: Yikes.

DEKU: It's ok! It's just how he shows he cares.

(^.^)

URARAKA: lol whatever you say Deku.

I hope you come back soon to UA soon.

DEKU: I hope so too. (v_v)

Uraraka was about to put away her phone when a dastardly thought entered her brain. It slowly wormed its way through her mind until it rang out in every fiber of her being. Uraraka stared at her phone for a long minute as she fretted over it. Indecision warred inside her as she slowly typed out the message. Her finger hovered hesitantly over the send key.

Finally, with a deep breath, she hit send.

URARAKA: I miss you.

…

No response.

Uraraka's heart fell.

She quickly turned her phone on silent and curled up in bed. Maybe this was a dumb idea? Sure she might be a good fit for Deku but what would it even matter if he didn't like her back?

Uraraka let out a sad sigh as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Her phone lit up a shortly after, displaying a new message received.

DEKU: I miss you too.

* * *

 **And that's it for chapter 5!**

 **I am so sorry for my absence. I've been looking for a new job and it's been taking a lot out of me. (^.^')**

 **...also I maaaaay have purchased Red Dead Redemption.**

 **Ahem.**

 **Anyway, when I first published this fic I was trying to publish a chapter every week. Now it seems like I'm going to be doing it every week or two. Although hopefully once I get a job thing will settle down and I can focus more on my writing.**

 **I do have an offer so that's good at least!**

 **Anyway, long life note aside, I don't think there will be many spoilers after this chapter for anime watchers. I have most of this planned out and there are only two instances where something comes up.**

 **Also, Aoyama is really difficult to write. (^.^')**

 **Also, I just feel like Midoriya is the type to overuse emojis.**

 **As always, thank you so much for reading and please leave any feedback you can!**

 **-Dorky Desperado**


	6. Chapter 6

Today was a good day, Uraraka decided.

Granted it was only nine in the morning and the day had yet to really happen yet, but it was still a good day. What made it a good day? Was it the bright, winter sun or the slow, gentle snowfall she could see from her window?

Or did it have something to do with a text she received from her crush last night?

Nah, it was probably the snow.

Still, Uraraka woke to great pleasure when she read Deku's message. Sure, all it said was that he missed her too and that there was nothing to suggest it wasn't meant in a platonic way. But after all of the chaos of the past two days, Uraraka was happy to take what little she could get!

As such, Uraraka found herself skipping down to the dining hall to grab some breakfast and coffee to kick-start her day. She didn't have anything planned for the day which was nice because she could just relax and laze about.

A ding broke her out of her thoughts as the machine finished her coffee. Oh wow, she was so caught up in her good mood she completely didn't notice she had already arrived and got a cup of coffee. Silly her! She chuckled as she turned around. Today really was going to be a good day.

A dozen, intensely annoyed glares greeted her from the room.

Uraraka whimpered.

"Having a good morning?" Todoroki seethed from across the room.

"Um, yes?"

"And why is that?"

"Uhhhhh…"

"It wouldn't have anything to do with Midoriya now, would it?"

Yes.

"Nope! I just, uhhh really like the winter!"

Kaminari gave her a confused look. "Really? I thought you hated the cold because your costume isn't very warm?"

Kaminari! Why?!

"Wow, Kaminari. If you put that much thought into your studies, you might actually get a passing grade," Jirou jested from across the room.

"This is why I'm sitting with Hagakure and not you Jirou!" Kaminari shouted back.

What?

Aoyama waved his arms wildly from his table.

"Umm, I'm going to see what Aoyama wants," Uraraka hesitantly said as she began to walk over to him. She didn't miss Todoroki and Jirou's eyes follow her suspiciously as she made her way over. Uraraka had a feeling Hagakure was also doing the same, but it was hard to tell with her.

Uraraka sat down at the table across from Aoyama, eyes still on the others.

"So, what is going on, Aoyama?"

"What do you think, Mademoiselle? We must plan our attack!" Aoyama said as he pulled out a decorative shield from beneath the table pulling her focus away from them onto him.

It was at that moment Uraraka realized Aoyama was dressed in the shiny, suit of armor he kept in his room. How she had not noticed it before or heard it considering how loud it was, was beyond her.

"Umm, what?"

"Love is war, Uraraka! And you are up against the most fierce of enemies! You must strike at young Midoriya's heart before you lose your chance to them!"

Uraraka looked at the only other occupant at their table, Asui for help.

Asui shrugged her shoulders.

"I wouldn't, ribbit, go that far, Aoyama."

Aoyama held his heart as he had been shot.

"But it does seem the other teams are planning something." she continued.

"Teams? Since when there are teams?" Uraraka exclaimed.

"Ribbit, since after class yesterday while you were on your date with Yaoyorozu. Most of the class has decided to help out someone in the Dekubowl."

"So, everyone has picked sides?" Uraraka asked.

"Mostly. Some people aren't helping anyone out and staying out of it. Ribbit, Mineta has been in his room since yesterday and hasn't left." Asui replied.

"Is he ok?"

"Non!" Aoyama answered. "He is lamenting that everyone has declared Midoriya their amour!"

Huh, so everyone has already picked sides? Well, that's fine she still had Asui, her best friend and Aoyama, who seemed pretty committed. And then there was-

"Have any of you seen Iida?" Uraraka asked.

Aoyama's and Asui's expressions were that of someone who had to inform their dear friend that there was a small crocodile attached to their head and that same crocodile had rabies.

"What's wrong?"

"Uraraka! Did you ask for me?" Iida called from the table next to theirs.

Todoroki's table.

"Iida! You're backing Todoroki?!" Uraraka shouted out.

Iida stood up. "You are a close friend of mine, Uraraka; but I was not aware of you liking Midoriya until last night. By then I had already pleaded my efforts to Todoroki."

"Ah, ok." Well, at least Iida looked guilty about it. It would have probably been less of a blow if it wasn't for Todoroki's damnable smirk.

Her eyes locked with his, promising retribution.

"Do not worry, Mademoiselle! I am worth a hundred Iida's and Tsuyu here is worth at least a few!"

"Ribbit, thanks Aoyama," Asui flatly said.

A warm feeling speared its way to her heart and the sight of her friend's support. Still, Iida's backing did bring up one important question.

"If Iida's helping out Todoroki, who is moderating this whole thing?" Uraraka asked out to the room, silencing all discussion.

"What do you mean, moderate?" Jirou asked.

"Well, remember when Yaoyorozu tried to fix up the Winter Ball assignments?"

Yaoyorozu's head went down in shame.

"W-which everyone knows she didn't mean too much harm!" Uraraka quickly added. "But, still, shouldn't we have someone around who can make sure nothing like that happens?" Uraraka finished.

"But we're already in teams! Who else can do it?" Sero asked.

The door to the dining room exploded outwards in a whirlwind of fury as Bakugo stalked through them with Kirishima skittering behind.

"Never again." Bakugo seethed as he stalked over to the coffee machine.

"But Bakugo..." Kirishima pleaded.

"No! I am never getting involved with that loser's love life ever again!"

Sero gasped in excitement. "Hey, Bakugo! Want to be the commissioner of Dekubowl?"

"What the hell did you just say Tape Arms!?"

"We want you to help officiate the Dekubowl!"

"Hell no!"

"Sero, what are you talking about?" Jiro asked.

"Well, we need someone who isn't on a team and Bakugo isn't on a team. Also, he's been friend with Midoriya for like, ever! He'd be the best judge about what Midoriya would like."

Huh, that actually made a lot of sense. And it seemed like most of the class agreed as everyone was looking at Bakugo expectantly.

Bakugo fumed back in return.

"No."

"But, why not?" Uraraka asked.

"Because I had to waste my entire night listening to that idiot moan about his love life! My. Entire. Night. And for what?! NOTHING! He was still complaining about it this morning!"

Kaminari waggled his eyebrows at Bakugo "Wow, an entire night with the class heartthrob! How does Kirishima feel about this?"

"Oh, I was there too!" Kirishima cheerfully replied.

"Kinky."

"SHUT THE HELL UP, SPARKY!"

"Enough!" Iida shouted. "Bakugo, I beg of you. I have already chosen a side and can no longer perform my duty as class representative in this manner!"

Uraraka gave her friend a flat look. Since, when did overseeing a romantic competition become a part of a class representative's job?

Iida stood up and then bowed toward Bakugo. "Please become the commissioner I could never be!"

"Hell no!"

Sero smirked at Bakugo. "Really? Only one night dealing with this and you're already throwing the towel?"

Kaminari, catching on, continued. "It looks like it. I guess it's just too challenging of a job for him after all."

"SCREW YOU BOTH! I'LL BE YOUR DAMN COMMISSIONER!"

Sero and Kaminari turned around and chuckled towards each other. "Too easy," Sero said.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TAPE ARMS?!"

Thankfully, any threat of violence was interrupted by Kirishima cheering. "Dude! You're going to be a commissioner! That's so cool!"

Bakugo paused and looked at Kirishima before adopting a cocky grin. "Well, yeah. Who else could pull it off?" He said with a small amount of red dusting his cheeks.

Uraraka had to hold herself back from squeeing. So cute!

Todoroki raised his hand. "In that case, what happens next?"

"What are you talking about, Icy-hot?" Bakugo responded.

"Well, since we now have a commissioner, I assume we are going to have a structure to this competition? Otherwise, we might just overwhelm Midoriya with our own separate acts of flirtation."

Kirishima nodded his head. "He's right Bakugo. You saw Midoriya last night. If we can't figure out a way to resolve this-"

"Then Deku will be the same as he was last night?" Bakugo replied.

"Probably worse," Kirishima replied.

"Alright, death battle it is!" Bakugo announced.

"Bakugo, for the last time, we can't fight to the death over Midoriya," Yaoyorozu sighed.

"I think a duel for Midoriya's love is an appropriate solution," Todoroki said.

Yeah, right. Uraraka had already gone through enough trouble fighting Bakugo at the sports festival. It would be a long time before Uraraka would feel comfortable fighting Todoroki of all people!

"Actually, he might have a point," Iida said with his hand holding his chin, deep in thought.

Iida, you traitor!

Everyone in the room looked at Iida shock.

"Not, necessarily the death battle part of course!" Iida quickly amended. "But perhaps we should have a competition of some sort? Something to prove who would be the best match for Midoriya?"

"What, like a talent show?" Jiro asked.

Kirishima gasped excitedly, causing the whole room to turn their heads.

"Idols," he said with a starry look in his eyes.

"Idols? Really?" Bakugo said.

"Of course! Idols are totally awesome and one of the manliest jobs out there!"

…

There was a long, pregnant pause as everyone in the room tried to digest what Kirishima had just said.

Todoroki raised his hand. "What is an idol?"

Kirishima grinned. "Dude! You don't know what an idol is? Here, let me show you!" Kirishima pulled out his phone and jogged over to Todoroki. A high energy pop song sung by a group of women began to blare out from the speakers.

"I see. So, this is what you call one of the manliest jobs ever?" Todoroki said.

"You bet I do!"

"Are you an idiot?" Todoroki flatly said.

Kirishima's face fell as fell even further when he noticed

the rest of the classes judgemental gazes.

"W-what's wrong?!"

"How is being an idol one of the manliest jobs out there? It's literally a bunch of girls singing pop on a stage. It's one of the most effeminate things out there, Kirishima." Kaminari pointed out.

Kirishima regained his compose and adopted a cocky grin. "Ah, I see. You think being manly is all about masculinity, don't you?"

There was another, long pregnant pause.

What?

"What are you talking about, Kirishima?" Todoroki asked.

"Being manly is about the attitude you carry in your soul! It doesn't matter what gender you are! It isn't about confidence or not knowing fear!" Kirishima held his fists in front of him and an incredible aura began to wash over them as everyone was swept up in his words.

"Idols put every ounce of their soul on the stage and they stake their livelihoods on every performance! And what they do brings joy to people! The music they make saves peoples lives just like how us heroes save lives!"

Kirishima shot his fist up into the air as he reached a fever pitch. "A manly heart to me is a life without regrets! And that's what idols do! They lift our hearts up so that we can push past our regrets and enjoy life!"

There was a stunned moment of silence as everyone slowly absorbed his words. Suddenly Kaminari slowly began to clap his hands. Then, one by one, each member of the class started joining in and before long, the entire room was filled with applause.

Bakugo smirked at Kirishima. "Did you just quote that entire Crimson Riot video you showed me last night?"

Kirishima blushed. "W-well it wasn't about idols. It still relates though!" he protested.

"I still don't see how this relates to Midoriya," Jiro asked.

"If you all have an ounce of the manly spirit that a pop idol does, then you'd be willing to put your heart and soul in your performance just like them!" Kirishima cheered.

"B-but I think that talent show might be better-"

"Oh, come on Jiro! An idol competition sounds totally fun!" Hagakure interrupted.

"I-I don't know. I just don't feel-"

"Alright, you heard Kirishima! We're doing an idol competition!" Bakugo declared.

There was a loud cheer as everyone excitedly began to plan for what they were going to put on. Everyone except for Jiro, Uraraka noticed. Instead, Jiro sat back with a frustrated grimace. Koda, who was next to Jiro, was trying his best to give her some encouragement, to no avail.

Uraraka could understand Jiro's frustration. An idol competition? Really? She had a strong feeling that if Midoriya were to find out about this, he would just be confused more than anything else.

This was not how she imagined courting at all!

A snicker broke her out of her thoughts. Aoyama sat next to her with his open palm over his mouth giggling. Asui had a concerned look on her face and Uraraka had a strong feeling why.

"Mademoiselle, I have a plan."

"Is it a good plan?"

"Ribbit, probably not."

Aoyama fell out of his chair. "Such faith! Worry not! An idol competition is one of style and glamour! Two fields which I excel more than anyone at!"

Oh, dear.

"What do you have in mind?" Uraraka hesitantly asked.

"I have an idea that will make you dazzle the crowd so much, they will have no choice but to let you date Midoriya!"

Uraraka doubted that.

"But Kirishima said that idols are more about lifting people spirits, ribbit. We shouldn't focus too much on spectacle. We should also think about the performance itself." Asui added.

Aoyama leaned back in an almost maniacal laughter, filling Uraraka worth a deep sense of dread.

"Aoyama, you're scaring us."

"My apologies. But spectacle is a perfect way to lift someone's spirits!"

Uraraka gave a deep sigh. "Okay, so then what's your idea?"

Aoyama gave them a cocky grin. "We are going to give the crowd a performance using the best of all of our abilities! My lasers, Uraraka's gravity and most importantly of all…"

Aoyama pointed at Asui.

"Tsuyu's spit!"

Uraraka slapped a hand to her face. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

"Uraraka, can you sing?"

Tomorrow was going to be a really, really long day.

* * *

 **I'm so sorry for the short chapter! It's been a little difficult with the holidays finding time to write. My girlfriend and I have been entertaining her family at our apartment and I've been focusing a lot of my time trying to be cool for them (i.e. dork the place up a ton). I think they approved.**

 **Also, the holidays means work is super busy. Mainly because I work retail and Black Friday is the woooooooorst. Thankfully, I just accepted a new job with normal work hours! Woohoo!**

 **Anyway, I've been watching Zombieland Saga recently (as research for the next chapter I swear!) and I would definitely recommend. I vibe very strongly with that show.**

 **So, next chapter is either going to be two short chapters a week after one another or one super long chapter similar to the Yaoyorozu chapter. It'll most likely be the former since were in the middle of a big sale (retail is shite!) and also the pacing will probably work out better that way.**


	7. Chapter 7

"So, uh, come here often?" Uraraka awkwardly asked Asui.

Normally, she wouldn't be so awkward around her best friend, but these were not normal times and this was definitely timely a strange place for them to be in.

Uraraka sighed as she found herself longing for simpler times. Times when her froggy friend would have been the voice of reason in Uraraka's life and would normally ground her when things got too hectic.

And then Aoyama brought in her idol dress.

Uraraka originally wasn't too worried about having Aoyama's particular brand of weird joining her because she thought Asui would be there to reign him in if he was getting too into things.

The dress should have definitely been one of those things. When Aoyama asked what type of dress she wanted to wear, Uraraka responded that she wanted to wear something more simple. A nice strapless dress with a tutu similar to the dress she already owned. In fact, she was just planning on wearing that dress but Aoyama convinced her that he could make something better.

And what he came back with was in theory what she wanted: a strapless dress with a tutu. However, there was one major issue with the dress:

It was completely made out of foil.

At first, Uraraka recoiled at the sight of it. How could she not? A dress made out of foil? And when she looked to her best friend for support, her rock, her night in froggy armor, Asui was smiling.

 _Smiling._

At a foil dress!

"It's perfect," Asui sincerely said, causing Uraraka to recoil again.

And thus, Uraraka found herself dressed in an odd, foil dress in one of the many performance studios UA had around their campus. The Hero class rarely ever used them and were instead used in General Ed and, oddly enough, the Support courses.

She didn't really know why they used them but if she were to believe Hatsumei's ranting, it was so that the support students would "get out of the lab and enjoy life more." To which Hastumei responded that her babies were her life and she wouldn't let the Principal Protective Services separate them from her.

…

Uraraka sincerely hoped Hatsumei wouldn't get involved in the Dekubowl.

"Actually, I do come here often, ribbit," Asui responded to her earlier question.

"Really?"

"Ribbit, yeah! I really like dancing in my free time to help train my cardio."

"Wow! That's so cool, Asui!" Uraraka remembered that she had an easier time with the dance choreography during the cultural festival.

Asui blushed from the praise. "Thank you, Ochako. I'm hoping I won't let you down with the choreography."

Uraraka grinned at her best friend. "Are you kidding! I'm sure you'll do amazing! To be honest, just having you here with me makes this whole thing easier to handle. I really appreciate your help, Asui."

Asui smiled at her best friend meltingly, "Ochako…"

"How are the two lovebirds getting along?" Aoyama asked, appearing out of thin, sparkling air.

Asui made a sound that was halfway between a squawk and a ribbit. It sounded as if a frog screamed for help from the mouth of a hungry hawk. "A-aoyama what are you talking about, ribbit?"

Aoyama slapped his hand to his head and leaned backward. "My mistake, Tsuyu! The only lovebird in this room is our dear, Uraraka for the fabulous Midoriya!:

Uraraka gave him a flat look. "Aren't you also in love with Deku?"

Aoyama stuck both his arms out in a dramatic pose.

"Non! After my heart was rejected I strove to move on! Which is why I am here with you Mademoiselle!"

Uraraka sighed. "I know, and I appreciate it, Aoyama. Thank you. So, what were you able to figure out?"

"Well, I talked to Bakugo about our act and everything is a go! He said that he will accept almost everything as long as it, and I quote, "Murders himself and everyone else in the room.""

Uraraka and Asui facepalmed. Yeah, that sounds like Bakugo alright.

"He even said that he will allow lip syncing, Uraraka!" Aoyama celebrated.

Uraraka winced.

Asui looked at her in concern. "What's wrong, Ochako?"

Uraraka looked at both of her friends hesitantly. "Umm, I put some thought into it and… I want to sing."

Aoyama and Asui both stared at her.

…

They continued a staring.

"Umm-" Uraraka started.

"Didn't you say that you didn't know how to sing, ribbit?" Asui interrupted.

"Well yeah, but-"

"And don't you want to sing Defying Gravity, one of the most difficult musical theatre songs ever written?" Aoyama continued.

"Yes, I do. But I was thinking about what Kirishima said-"

"The same Kirishima who thinks idols are the manliest thing ever?" Aoyama interrupted.

"Would you let me finish!" Uraraka burst.

Aoyama and Asui continued to stare.

Uraraka continued, "Look, being an idol is about putting everything you got out there and get it back from the audience, right?"

"If you want to believe Kirishima, then yes," Aoyama said earning a quick punch in the shoulder from Asui.

"Well, I want to put everything I got out there! I want to show that crowd my love for Deku and I want to feel it back! I want them to know why I should be the one to take Deku to the dance!" Uraraka shot her first up to the ceiling in order to finish up her speech.

"I'm going to be honest, mademoiselle. I really don't understand what you all think an idol is. They're just-"

Aoyama was interrupted by Asui slapping his head with her tongue. "Ribbit, that makes sense, Ochako. Why don't you try singing something for us? Something maybe easier than Defying Gravity," Asui offered.

Uraraka nodded and began to hum a simple pop song she heard on the radio that morning.

And then she began to sing.

Aoyama's mouth dropped to the floor.

Her heart picked up and she began putting her all into the song, emboldened by the shocked expressions on her friends' faces. Once she was done and out of breath, she faced the two of them with a confident grin on her face.

"So what did you think?"

Aoyama stood up and applauded. "Bravo, Mademoiselle! Bravo!"

Uraraka bowed.

"That was absolutely satisfactory! A solid six and a half out of ten!"

Uraraka fell to the floor.

"Six and a half out of ten?!" Uraraka whined from the floor.

"Well, when you said you didn't know how to sing we were expecting you to sound like a banshee, darling." Aoyama leaned over and patted her on the shoulder, trying his best to console her.

"I liked it, ribbit," Asui said, raising Uraraka's hopes up. "It was really nice and homey. I'd give it a seven out of ten."

Uraraka fell back to the floor and pushed her hands into her face in embarrassment.

"So, you don't think I can sing Defying Gravity?" Uraraka said through her hands.

"Well, why don't we try?" Aoyama said, sitting down at the piano in the room. He started playing the opening chords of the song as Uraraka took a deep breath to calm herself.

Slowly she began to sing.

 _I hope you're happy…_

" _Six and a half out of ten"_

Out of nowhere, Aoyama's words echoed in her mind.

Her voice cracked.

 _Too long I've been afraid of,_

 _Losing love I guess I've lost,_

 _Well if that's love,_

 _It comes at much too high a cost!_

This was it the big chorus line. She could do this. She can do this! She was gonna-

" _I'd give it a seven out of ten."_

Uraraka missed the note.

Badly.

Aoyama and Asui winced.

Uraraka stopped singing. She looked down at the floor, her face close to breaking. She gave herself a soft slap to the face. Uraraka couldn't get her friends comments out of her mind.

 _Adequate._

 _Seven out of ten._

It wasn't bad by any means. Aoyama was right, a seven out of ten was pretty good for someone who wasn't trained. There was just one issue with that in her mind:

Deku didn't deserve adequate. He deserved the best.

Uraraka choked back a sob.

Asui ran up to her friend and gave her a tight hug. "It's okay, Uraraka, ribbit."

Aoyama patted Uraraka on the shoulder. "The chorus isn't an easy one to hit, Mademoiselle. There's nothing wrong with lip syncing."

Asui nodded at Aoyama. "Aoyama's right, ribbit. We can also pick an easier song if you want."

Uraraka wiped her eyes. "Yeah, you're both right. It's just… I don't know. This is my favorite song and I really wanted to put my all in it you know?"

Asui placed her hand on her chin in thought. "Because of what Kirishima said?"

Uraraka nodded. "I know it's foolish. But I really like Deku and what he said about giving it your all just kind of… stuck with me, ya know?"

Aoyama patted her on the back. "It's okay, Mademoiselle. I think you'll still be able to-"

"You're going to sing the song, ribbit." Asui declared, interrupting Aoyama.

They both looked at their friend in shock.

"B-but I can't actually sing it!" Uraraka argued.

"It doesn't matter." Asui walked up to Uraraka with fire in her eyes and placed both of her hands on Uraraka shoulders. "Kirishima was right, ribbit."

Aoyama scoffed.

Asui hit him with her tongue.

"If you go out there and don't sing Defying Gravity, you're going to regret it, Uraraka. And what was the one thing, Kirishima said to do, ribbit?"

Uraraka sighed. "Don't live life without-"

"That's right, Ochako. You have to be manly," Asui finished.

…

Well, that too?

Aoyama slapped his fist to his palm. "Tsuyu's right, Uraraka! In order to do this, you need to be a man! A man wouldn't hold anything back and what are you?!"

A woman.

"A man!" Aoyama declared.

Asui nodded her head. "Ribbit, in order to sing this Broadway number, you'll have to be the manliest person on stage. When you need to hit that high note and you begin to doubt yourself, Ochako, you have to tell yourself to be a man, ribbit."

Uraraka gave her friends a flat look. Be a man, really? That was their advice?

Still, looking at her two friends, Uraraka felt a warm feeling fill her chest. She truly was happy to have such good friends supporting her.

Even if their advice was a little misgendered.

Uraraka giggled, "Well, I can try. But what about everything else? Also, why the foil dress?"

Aoyama and Asui looked at each other and smiled.

"Okay, so here's my fabulous plan!" Aoyama began.

/-/

"Are you ready for this, babe!" Kirishima excitedly gushed at Bakugo.

Bakugo gave a cocky grin. "They better be ready for me if they want to win this thing."

Uraraka gulped in the seat behind them.

Stage light blared into existence illuminating an empty stage. A low beat came crawling out of the speakers as a colorful dress, floated onto the stage.

"Hello, everyone!" Hagakure called out to the crowd. Class 1-A cheered their support to their friend as Hagakure slowly began her routine. "I'm really happy you all I showed up! I hope you all enjoy my show!"

Uraraka watched from the second row where the other idols were gathered. None of them were in costume and, considering her own planned dress, it was a fact that Uraraka was thankful for.

They sat behind the two judges of the evening: Kirishima and Bakugo. Kirishima waved a glow stick in the air with a wide grin splitting his face. Bakugo sat with an amused smirk on his face as he bobbed his head to the beat.

Hagakure sang a popular song from a new and emerging idol group. While Hagakure didn't really do anything too out of the norm, Uraraka couldn't help but find herself enjoying the performance. Hagakure was energetic, fun and super cute on stage.

And it seemed like her classmates agreed.

"This is so fun! I've never done anything like this before!" Yaoyorozu cheered.

"Indeed! It really is wonderful to see our classmates perform so well!" Iida cried as he wiped proud tears from his face.

"I don't know how I feel about the costume. I think it leaves too much to the imagination." Mineta critiqued.

"Really dude? It's Hagakure. It's all imagination in her case," Sero countered.

Uraraka smiled. Watching Hagakure on stage, she could definitely see where Kirishima was coming from. Already she could feel her spirit being lifted and her doubts washing away.

"And that's my show! I hope you all enjoyed it!" Hagakure shouted out to a roar of applause before she hurried off the stage.

Kirishima stood back up. "Ok, next up is Uraraka! Go get dressed and set up."

Uraraka's spirit crashed and her doubts came flooding back.

Aoyama slapped his hands on her shoulders. "Allons-y, Uraraka!"

Uraraka gulped and stood up.

"Ochako?" Asui called before she had a chance to walk away.

"Yeah, Asui?"

Asui quickly ran up and tightly wrapped her arms around Uraraka.

"You're going to be fantastic, ribbit."

Uraraka felt her eyes water up and she returned the hug.

It didn't take long for Uraraka to get dressed and come backstage. A quick look to the rafters confirmed that Asui and Aoyama were in place. She took in a deep breath to calm her nerves.

So, she may not be able to hit the right notes, she may not be able to hold the ballad long enough, she may just have a slightly above average voice! But damn it all, she was going to give it her all.

She was going to be a man!

The lights dimmed and the chatter from the audience muted. Slowly she walked out on stage. Uraraka could make out the faint outlines of her fellow classmates in the darkness. Her heart hammered in her chest and she drew in one final breath and closed her eyes.

" _Something has changed within me…"_

A spotlight burst to life and focused on her.

The crowd gasped.

" _Something is not the same,_

 _I'm through with playing by the rules,_

 _Of someone else's game…"_

Uraraka opened her eyes to see the smiling faces of her classmates.

"That dress is amazing Uraraka!" Yaoyorozu screamed out.

Uraraka grinned with the knowledge that Aoyama's plan worked. The foil dress glowed in the light making her look like a bright shining star shooting around the stage.

She looked, dare she say it, _dazzling._

" _Too late for second-guessing,_

 _Too late to go back to sleep,_

 _It's time to trust my instincts,_

 _Close my eyes and leap!"_

Uraraka lightly slapped her hip and she slowly began to rise from the stage.

This was it. The big chorus. She could do it. She just needed to go for it with everything she had!

Just like Deku would do!

" _It's time to try,_

 _Defying gravity,_

 _I think I'll try,_

 _Defying gravity,"_

A beautiful falsetto rang out through the auditorium. The high note which the song called for. The note that she could never hit.

And it didn't come from her mouth.

She didn't hit the note; how could she? To the audience, it appeared as though she was hitting the note, Uraraka was certainly putting the effort to do so. But at the moment she tried and failed, the audio cut seamlessly to someone else who succeeded.

She looked up to the rafters and saw Aoyama's winking face singing into the microphone.

Uraraka face split into a wide grin as she continued.

" _Kiss me goodbye,_

 _I'm defying gravity,_

 _And you won't bring me down!"_

As she sang, Asui lowered small globes lowered themselves all around her. They were small pieces of glass, at least two dozen the size of basketballs. They were Aoyama's secret weapon: mirrors from his personal collection that were warped into spheres using Asui's stomach acid. Disgusting in theory but in practice...

As she got to the second chorus, Aoyama filled his laser in front of him, hitting a small prism angled towards the stage. The light split and hit each of the lowered sphere illuminating the entire stage with a dozen spherical lights in every color of the spectrum.

Uraraka floated around them, a shining beacon through a sea of rainbows.

" _I think I'll try_

 _Defying Gravity,_

 _And you won't bring me down!_

 _Bring me down!_

 _Oh oh oh!"_

The song ended as she lowered herself back onto the ground. A roar of applause greeted her as she carefully and tensely bowed.

Oh, good they enjoyed it.

Strangely enough, Uraraka couldn't find it in herself to care all that much. Was it because she was happy because of her friends' support? Or was it because the only person she really needed to impress was herself?

No.

At that moment, Uraraka cared about was where the nearest trash can was.

Her stomach lurched signaling the end of the tenuous control of her stomach muscles. Quickly, she dashed off the stage where she had strategically placed a trash can, expecting this to happen.

"Blrgllll," Uraraka said violently to the trash can.

The sound of retching from the rafters signaled that Aoyama was going through a similar experience as to herself. Both of them cursed to empty their stomachs when they used their quirk for too long. It was a good thing they've been training their quirks so much otherwise she never would have lasted the song!

Once she finished filling the trash can, Uraraka stepped back out to the audience where she was met with a wave of support.

"Not half bad, round face," Bakugo called from the front. "It was almost enough to impress me."

"Aww, don't listen to him, Uraraka!" Kirishima laughed next to Bakugo. "He was cheering the whole time with a big grin on his face!"

"Shut your face!" Bakugo screamed before hitting his boyfriend in the arm. He pointed to Iida. "At least I wasn't as bad as four-eyes in the back."

"I-I am just so proud of my friend!" Iida wailed as tears flowed freely from his eyes.

Ashido ran up to Uraraka. "I cannot believe you did that."

Uraraka grinned. "Yeah, it wasn't an easy song to do."

"No, you fool!" Ashido admonished. "You actually pulled off the shojo lighting!"

"Shojo lighting?"

Ashid looked at her incredulously. "Yeah! You know how in shojo when there a romantic scene and there's a bunch of soft lighting and sparkly lights all over the place?"

"I knew that looked familiar!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed.

Huh, now that she mentioned it, it did look like something out of a shojo romance scene. Uraraka looked back at Aoyama who was talking animatedly with Asui. Was Aoyama a shojo fan as well? It definitely wouldn't have been the weirdest thing Uraraka has seen all day.

"Okay losers! Back to your seats! Half-and-half is up next!" Bakugo announced.

Ashido jumped in the air, full of excitement. "That's us, Todoroki! Let's show them what you're made of!"

Iida snapped out of his stupor. "Ashido is right! Let's show our fellow classmates our hard work and effort!"

Todoroki slowly stood up and walked over to them. As he did, Todoroki sent a challenging glare at Uraraka. The glare of the pack leader staring down a challenger.

Uraraka glared defiantly back, a confident smirk on her face.

Todoroki left towards the stage alongside Iida and Ashido.

"Is there something going on between you two, mademoiselle?" Aoyama asked.

"Just a fated battle between two romantic rivals."

"Ah… that sounds… nice?"

Asui hopped over to Uraraka. "You did so well, Ochako! I'm so proud of you!"

Uraraka wrapped both Asui and Aoyama in a tight embrace. "Thank you both for your help."

Uraraka could feel tears pooling in the corners of her eyes. Don't cry. Don't cry.

"Y-your friendship means so much to me!" she sobbed.

Eh, what the hell? What were a few tears of happiness shared with friends?

"Oi! Crybabies in the front! Sit the hell down before I make you!" Bakugo threatened from the front.

They hurriedly sat back down.

The lights dimmed.

A spotlight shone down onto the stage.

Todoroki stood in a black suit and tie. A fairly bland costume in Uraraka's opinion, but it was well tailored and it did look good on him. Although, to be fair, almost anything would look good on him, the beautiful jerk.

"Mademoiselle, are you pouting?"

"Shut up, Aoyama," Uraraka replied.

 _Do you ever feel like a plastic bag,  
Drifting through the wind,  
Wanting to start again._

Todoroki began to sing as he gently moved across the stage. The movements seemed to be inspired by ballet as they were smooth and-

He just did a twirl.

Uraraka wished she did a twirl…

Also, she wished she had his voice. Todoroki was such a good singer!

Still, with Ashido and Iida helping him, Uraraka expected something bigger. Maybe that was all they could get him to agree to do?

 _You just gotta ignite the light,  
And let it shine,  
Just own the night,  
Like the Fourth of July._

The lights cut out. Uraraka could hear the faint sound of clothes being torn off.

 _Cause baby you're a firework!_

Fire erupted from the stage, revealing Todoroki in an entirely new outfit. His suit was torn away, leaving Todoroki in tight leather pants and an open leather vest.

And no shirt.

Oh, did it suddenly get hot in here? It had to be the fire.

It had to be.

Uraraka gulped as Todoroki began a high tempo dance on stage. Rapid arm punches, high kicks, and even a flip, Todoroki was pulling out all of the stops with his choreography. It was fun, energetic and most all completely contagious. Everyone was standing up, cheering and dancing along to the beat of the music.

Frustratingly enough, so was Uraraka.

And strangely, she couldn't find it in herself to care.

The energy came to a fever pitch as Todoroki came to the last part of his song.

 _Make 'em go "Ah, ah, ah!"  
As you shoot across the sky-y-y,  
Baby, you're a firework!  
Come on let your colors burst!_

Todoroki shot fireball up towards the ceiling where they hit small canisters suspending from the rafters. They ignited, filling the auditorium in a rainbow of light as fireworks exploded all around them.

"Impossible," Aoyama gaped looking at the ceiling. "Isn't Iida on their team? Isn't this a fire hazard?"

"To be honest, ribbit, because Iida is on their team, I'm sure they found a way to make sure it isn't," Asui argued.

The lights slowly faded out as Todoroki finished his song. Class 1-A stood up in uproarious applause.

Uraraka stared at the stage, expressionless.

"That was tres bien, magnifique!" Aoyama said clapping his hands. There was a tenseness in his voice as he looked at Uraraka.

"How are you feeling, Ochako?" Asui asked with a concerned look on her face.

Uraraka stared at the stage for a long moment. The last vestiges of Todorki's performance slowly fading from her mind. A strange feeling replaced the excitement from the performance. It was a feeling she has felt many times before, but never in this context.

She felt determined.

Determined to beat her rival.

Uraraka took on a confident smirk. "Yeah, I feel pretty pumped actually."

"Ok, next up is Jirou! Everyone put your hands together for her!"

Class 1-A started to applaud and Uraraka snapped out of her stupor. How long had she been staring at the stage? No wonder her friends were concerned!

She sat down as she got ready to watch what was going to no doubt a stellar performance. Even though Todoroki was a surprisingly good singer, he still didn't hold a candle to Jirou. Whatever, Jirou had planned, Uraraka was sure she was going to plant herself as a worthy rival to herself and Todoroki.

A spotlight focused itself on the stage as Jirou hesitantly walked out. She was dressed in her normal leather jacket and shirt but wore a plaid, frilled skirt instead of her usual trousers. Jirou's eyes were wide and her lips trembled as she lifted her microphone.

"This was a mistake," Bakugo declared with a deep frown on his face.

Kirishima looked at Bakugo in shock. "What do you mean, babe?"

"H-he-hello, everyone," Jirou stammered into the mike. "I-I am h-here to uhh…"

Jirou froze.

Uraraka felt a wave of confusion well up in her stomach. What was going on? She had an easy enough time performing during the cultural festival. What was so different now?

Before too much time could pass, Koda ran out on stage and gently walked Jirou off the stage. He kept patting her back and saying something to her out of Uraraka' earshot. All Uraraka could hear was one strangled sob that filled the air as Jirou exited the stage.

Silence filled the air as everyone tried to process what they just saw. No one could move or speak, too afraid to do something that might cause more damage.

"Everyone head back to the dorm," Bakugo called out to everyone.

"B-but Bakugo, shouldn't we-" Sero started.

"No," Bakugo interrupted with the force of a nail going into a coffin. "Give her space. We'll sort this out later."

With that, Bakugo left the auditorium, Kirishima following. An awkward moment followed where everyone stood in silence, each of them wanting to say something, to do something, and yet nothing came to mind. Slowly everyone broke up and left back to the dorms.

For some reason, that choked sob plagued Uraraka mind for the rest of the afternoon. It bothered her that there wasn't anything she could do. She was supposed to be a hero, darn it! It was her job to jump in when someone was suffering and yet she just stood there and did nothing. These troublesome thoughts followed Uraraka in bed and were the haunting lullaby she fell asleep to.

When she awoke in the middle of the night, she thought it must have been some sort of guilt-induced dream. After all, it was that same choked sob that awoke her.

Only, this time, it wasn't only once.

Slowly Uraraka crawled out of bed and walked over to her veranda as if she was in a trance, following those same sad sounds. They came from below, in the room directly under hers. Slowly she peered over the edges and found the source of the noise.

"Jirou?"

* * *

 **And that's chapter 7!**

 **I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Funnily enough, it took me a while for me to find the right song for Todorki's dance. To be honest. I still feel like there was a better song out there but "Firework" worked well enough for the scene.**

 **Anyways, the holidays are coming up and I have no idea how it's going to affect my writing! (^.^')**

 **I'm going to be with family for part of it but also that might give me a lot of free time to write. It really depends on how much is going on.**

 **In other news, I have an idea for a new fic I'll probably work on after this one. It'd be another MHA fic, this one focusing on Midoriya. I came up with the idea after lamenting that I couldn't have Midoriya be the unknowing, Dekubowl protagonist where everyone was trying to vie for his attention while he just continued unaware.**

 **Unfortunately, for the plot of this to make sense, Midoriya had to know what was going on because he is *ahem* doing things in the background.**

 ***Shuffles eyes suspiciously"**

 **Anyway, me wanting to write this funny romantic scenario led to me plotting out a grandiose, adventure plot to make it work.**

…

 **I have a strange mind.**

 **Anyway, I need to revisit an old book series for inspiration so it might take a while for it to come out. The fic would be a heavy AU, so I need to make sure I have the details of the U figured out.**

 **As always, thank you for reading and please leave any feedback you can!**

 **-Dorky Desperado**


	8. The Villain Interlude (Holiday Special)

**The Heinous Holiday Special**

 **Or,**

 **The Villain Interlude**

Dabi hated the holidays.

Partially because it was a family-centered holiday, and anything and everything to do with family was something Dabi despised with a burning passion. But also because the very idea of a holiday centered around bringing cheer to everyone was something that just didn't sit right with him for some reason.

And that reason was that he was a villain.

Holiday cheer kind of ran countenance to villainy, you know?

At least, that's what he thought.

Dabi's door kicked open and Dabi sighed a defeated sigh. It was the same kind of sigh you would hear from a man who had just been told he was going to die tomorrow and was then handed a big, fat medical bill to go along with it.

Shigaraki came barging in with a large, empty red bag, and a Christmas hat atop his head.

Dabi gave him a deadpan look, already regretting waking up.

"Dabi!" announced Shigaraki. "It's up to us to save Christmas!"

Was it too late to crawl back in bed?

"Why?" Dabi asked instead.

Shigaraki gave him a sadistic smile. "To destroy this society of course."

"And how is saving Christmas going to do that?"

"Simple. We're going to rob a bunch of toy stores."

"Okay?" Well, robbery was a good thing at least.

"And then we are going to give those toys back to all the little boys and girls in Tokyo!"

Dabi gave his boss a deadpan stare.

"Ok, I have several questions."

"Shoot."

"One. Why does Christmas need to be saved anyway?"

"Because we need to make the boys and girls believe in Santa, Dabi."

"Please don't tell me you believe in Santa, Shigaraki."

Shigaraki gasped, "See! Not even my own subordinate believes in Santa!"

Dabi slapped his hand against his face. "There is no such thing as Santa."

Shigaraki gave a deep dark chuckle that resonated throughout the room and gave Dabi the foreboding sense that his halls were about to be decked.

And by halls, he meant his sanity.

"Are you… are you telling me that Santa… does exist?"

"Of course! And he's right here!" Shigaraki shot his arms out in pride.

"... you're Santa Claus?"

"Uh-huh," Shigaraki said with almost childlike glee. Which sounded like a glitch in the universe coming from their leader. "Isn't it perfect? I already have white hair."

"I thought Santa was supposed to be fat."

"I've lost some weight."

"And that he was supposed to have a beard."

"I shaved."

"Does this make me your elf?"

"Yep."

"Goddammit."

"Isn't it perfect? We're going to show the world that the Santa Claus they hold so dear, is, in fact, a villain. Sometimes I frighten myself with my own genius."

"Sometimes you frighten all of us." Dabi sighed which might just become his villainous catchphrase if this keeps up. "Ok, fine. So then here's my next question: how is this going to hurt hero society?"

Shigaraki laughed a maniacal laugh. "Do you not see my genius, Dabi?"

"I think it should be pretty obvious that I don't."

"For you see!" Shigaraki pointed ceiling dramatically. "By providing toys to the children we prove two things! One, heroes can't always be there to protect the public. And two, us villains aren't such bad guys after all."

"..."

Dabi threw his hand to his face. Why is it that every single holiday, the world through nothing but absolute madness at him?

"Shigaraki, we're villains. We ARE the bad guys."

"Yeah, but the children don't know that. It's all about PR, Dabi."

"So, we are going to get PR by robbing a bunch of stores and breaking into their homes?"

"By spreading Christmas cheer, you fool. It's a win-win all around. The heroes lose more credibility and we start to appeal to the next generation. Now come along my little elf. It's time to spread some cheer with my sack."

"Don't call me an elf. And please don't say we're going to spread cheer with your sack."

"Fine. But only if you put on this elf costume."

"No."

"C'mon, I had Twice tailor it especially for you."

"No."

"Everyone is already wearing one."

"For the last time, no."

"Fine then." Shigaraki gave a coy smile. "My little elf."

Dabi groaned.

"Besides, we're doing a heist. Everyone knows you need to dress up for a heist."

"You play way too much GTA."

Shigaraki smiled at him. A very disturbing smile that was all teeth and chapped lips. It made Dabi, incredibly uncomfortable.

"Ok, you know what? Fine. I'll wear the damn costume. Just stop grinning at me like that."

"Ah ha! I knew my charm would win you over."

Sure, charm. That was _totally_ the reason.

/-/

Toga liked the holidays.

She was a fan of the pretty lights, the couple's out on dates and the color of blood everywhere she could see.

It was a nice holiday.

Toga was also a fan of the carols, much to the chagrin of her fellow villain, Dabi.

"Toga, for the love of all that is holy, please stop singing."

"Spinner, the red-nosed driver,

Had a very shiny nose,

And if you ever saw him,

You would even say it glows!"

"Yeah! Sing it, Toga!" Spinner cheered from the driver's seat, dressed in a reindeer costume with a bright LED nose on his face.

"You see Dabi? They understand what the holidays are about!" Shigaraki said from the back of the truck they were in, fully dressed in a Santa costume that was two sizes too large. The costume was obviously made for someone who better… embodied Santa, not that she cared.

Because it let her play dress up and everything was good if she got to play dress up.

And she made a damn good elf.

Better than Dabi anyway.

"Why do I have to be the one to wear the elf costume with the skirt?" Dabi said sitting across from Shigaraki.

"To show off your legs, idiot!" Twice said from next to her.

" **Because I got you confused with Toga."** Twice also said from next to her.

"I hate you all," Dabi seethed.

"Dabi, no," Shigaraki chastised. "This is Christmas. All I want to hear from you is holiday cheer!"

Dabi gave him a flat look.

"Fig off."

"That's better!" Shigaraki said with a smile.

Toga laughed.

"So, what's the plan, Shigaraki?" Mr. Compress said from across from her, dressed as a snowman. Mr. Compress was happy with his assigned outfit as it meant that he got to keep his hat.

Shigaraki have him a knowing smile, "We're going to spread some Christmas cheer, Mr. Compress."

"Oh joy," Mr. Compress said.

"To the world, Mr. Compress. To the world," Shigaraki replied.

"We're here!" Spinner announced as the truck screeched to a halt.

They all got out of the truck and found themselves in front of their target:

Toga gasped in excitement.

It was her favorite store! She had such fond memories here!

"Hey," Dabi said suddenly. "Wasn't this that store where a bunch of corpses was found full of stab wounds a year ago?"

Such fond, fond memories.

"Yes, and it doesn't matter," Shigaraki said as he walked up to the front door with a wicked smile on his face. "Because this store has everything we need to save Christmas."

"Dibs on all of the All Might dolls!" Toga exclaimed causing everyone to look in her direction.

"Why? Do you need kindling for the fireplace?" Shigaraki asked.

"Nah, I need it for a plan I'm working out. It's so I can get what _I_ want for Christmas next year."

"Oh? And what is it you want for Christmas, my little elf?" Shigaraki said, ignoring Dabi gagging in the background.

Toga gave a face-splitting smile as she broke out in a sing-song voice.

" _All I want for Christmas,_

 _Is Dekuuuu!"_

Shigaraki put his hand on his chin in contemplation. "Hmm, gross. Okay, Mr. Compress! You're up!"

Mr. Compress jumped at being called so suddenly. "Me? O-of course! What do you need, Shigaraki?"

"You're going to get us into the store! Since they don't have a chimney for us to sneak down, you're going to compress us down and throw us down the air vents to the store!"

"Huh, that actually might work."

"Dabi! Always the doubter! You need to have more faith in your Boss' evil schemes!" Shigaraki patted Dabi on the back, much to Dabi's chagrin.

"Wait, I don't feel comfortable with this," Twice said tensely.

" **Hell yeah! I love being in tight places! Stuff me down, man!"** Twice also said.

"Very well, gentlemen… and lady," Mr. Compress added with a short bow to Toga which she returned with a wink. "I will see you inside!"

And then Toga was compressed.

And then she wasn't.

It was an odd feeling. Odd in the sense that there was no feeling at all. One second she was there, and another she was suddenly inside the store as if she teleported there. Nothing at all how she imagined it. Toga thought it would have been like being stuffed into a locker, an image that did not sit well with her in the slightest. This was a much better experience.

Toga giggled. It was awesome.

"Hey, Mr. Compress?" Dabi said flatly.

"Yes, Dabi?"

"What's with all of the broken glass?"

Sure enough, there was broken glass all over the floor. Toga looked over to the doors and one of them had a large hole in it.

Shigaraki gave Mr. Compress an accusing glare that demanding nothing less than a full explanation.

"Umm, well you see… I realized after I compressed you all that I didn't really have a way to get on the roof. I tried throwing you all up there but I couldn't throw that high. So, like any good performer, I improvised!" Mr. Compress did a showman like bow and Toga happily clapped to him long with Twice.

Shigaraki was not as amused. "And how did you improvise, Mr. Compress?"

"With this brick I found."

Dabi facepalmed while Shigaraki gave him a flat look.

"You know what? Points on the effort, minus points on the execution... So you break even. Good job on being adequate, Mr. Compress."

"I am a performer, Shigaraki. Adequacy is a concept I'm very familiar with."

Wow, that was really sad. Still, it wasn't enough to distract Toga. She dealt with enough suffering artists at school. For some reason, she seemed to attract a lot of them, calling her a beautiful piece of art.

Jokes on them though, there was only one kind of suffering Toga was interested in.

Speaking of which, where was the All Might section? She had a Deku to catch.

As the rest of the group bickered amongst themselves, Toga wandered off into the massive toy store. Rows upon rows of toys filled the four-floor building. Everything from dolls to video games, to sports stuff and everything in between, was there. And unfortunately for Toga, her target was on the top floor.

A small sigh escaped her as she resigned herself to begin her climb up the stairs. She needed to force Mr. Compress to start working out. If he actually bothered to lift some weights once in a while, she wouldn't have to walk up four flights of stairs.

Sure, four flights wasn't a lot. but it was the principal of the matter!

Toga slit the throat of a large teddy bear in aggravation. She sighed as she watched the stuffing pouring out of the wound. Stuffing just didn't have the same satisfaction as blood, ya know?

Thankfully, her mood did a quick turn around as she suddenly found herself in the hero section of the store. It was marked as such by the life-sized statue of Endeavor that marked the aisle. Oddly enough, there weren't any flames on the statue. Just a bunch of holes where the flames would be.

Eh, it was probably nothing of importance.

Toga skipped down the aisle and quickly found what was she was looking for; which wasn't hard since half of the aisle was filled with All Might memorabilia.

Score.

She threw her bag on the floor and quickly got to work stuffing it full of whatever she could shove off the shelves. Toga probably couldn't throw together her villainous plot this year in such short notice, but next year it would be the best thing ever.

Her plan was simple: she was going to throw her sack of All Might stuff near UA and hide. Then, she would wait for Deku to come close to her bait and then she would pull a string and drop a box on him.

Then she would throw a knife in his leg and drag him off to her lair.

Genius.

"Toga, what are you doing?" Twice asked.

"I'm getting me a boyfriend."

"Oh, cool. I'll leave you to it then," Twice responded.

" **That sucks! Check out this cool thing I found instead!"** Twice also responded.

"Huh, what did you find?"

" **Check it!"** Twice crouched on the floor and pulled a car the size of brick out from behind him. He pushed a button on it and it transformed into a small robot that started to march around the aisle. Twice began to march in sync behind the tiny robot and Toga burst out laughing.

"That's so cool! Let me try it!" Toga quickly ran up and picked up the small contraption. It was really large for a transformer and she clicked on its head, causing the small toy to switch back into a car. "Wow, they make toys so complicated nowadays. Don't they, Twice?"

" **Nah, you just need to get smarter."**

"You're so right, Toga! I have no idea how half of these toys even work!" Twice replied as he continued to march around the aisle.

Toga hummed as she continued looking at the strange toy. Would Deku like something like this? It seemed like the thing someone super nerdy like him would be into. She continued to fumble around with the large car when she found a small, red button on the bumper.

She briefly considered the many movies telling her never to press the red button. The many books she read telling her not to push the red button. And the many, many memes telling her not to press the red button. It seemed like all of society was telling her not to push the red button.

Toga slowly pulled her finger away from the red button.

…

She then remembered she was a villain and pushed the red button down as hard as she could.

The car whirled to life in a cacophony of bright neon lights, music far too loud for a toy that size, and the sounds of a small motor coming to life, startling Toga into dropping the toy. It fell to the ground and rapidly began moving across the aisle...

Right under Twice's foot.

Twice stepped on the toy car and, with a girlish shriek, slipped and fell onto the shelving, knocking it over. The knocked shelf fell onto the Endeavor statue, causing it to fall over. An ominous hiss came from the fallen statue.

There was a brief moment where Toga wondered what was causing the hiss. That brief moment quickly ended as Toga got her answer.

...Oh. That's what the holes were for.

Flames erupted from the holes all over the Endeavor statue. They went in every single direction, causing Twice to jump around in a mild panic. Thankfully, it seemed like the store staff thought ahead and the surrounding merchandise was made of flame retardant skin.

Toga breathed a small sigh of relief. Shigaraki might laugh off the small act of arson but he might not be so appreciative of his holiday plans making their way up the chimney.

"Toga! The fire is spreading!" Twice said as he continued to run around in spicy panic.

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Toga asked.

" **All that crap on the floor is catching on fire!"**

Toga looked around in confusion. There shouldn't be anything that was flammable nearby. What was causing the fire to-

Oh.

Ooohhh….

Turns out, the outer layer of the toys were flame retardant, but the stuffing beneath it wasn't.

And there just so happened to be a fresh layer of flammable stuffing on the ground, courtesy of Toga's knife going on a first date with a teddy bear's neck.

…

Well, crap.

The flames erupted from the stuffing and began to spread to the other, flammable aisles. Heat poured from them, washing over Toga as she wondered if maybe now was a good time to leave.

A quick glance to the back of the store where, for some ungodly reason hydrogen-filled balloons crowded the back, provided her answer.

"Hey Twice? Let's leave," Toga said as she dragged her heavy bag filled with All Might merchandise dow. the stairs.

"Are you sure? It's so nice and warm up here!" Twice called down.

" **Yeah, it feels like the flames of hell up here! Perfect for a tan!"**

An explosion rang off in the background.

" **Nevermind. Explosions are not good for a tan. Cheese it!"**

Toga jolted down the stairs as her massive bag pin-balled behind her, leaving a mosaic of dents in the walls. At the bottom, she spotted Shigaraki and Dabi in the middle of an argument.

"Shigaraki, there are other things you can get kids."

"No."

"What about dolls for the girls?"

"Girls can play dress up in Soul Calibur. And they won't have to spend as much on all of the different dresses. Also, way to presume that boys won't want to play with dolls, Dabi."

"We're Villains. Why do you care?"

"Because we ARE villains! Who else better to recruit than those felt most marginalized by society? Is our cause not to right the wrongs of the presumptuous society? If we are truly to be villains, then our aims must be to be accepting of all creeds and beliefs. That way our strength may grow and we can eventually overthrow the majority that dares presume they are in the right because they are the many!"

Dabi gave Shigaraki a confused look, "But we're villains. Isn't being open and accepting a thing that heroes are supposed to do?"

Shigaraki smiled at Dabi like a fox to its prey. "Then why are there marginalized communities, Dabi?"

Dabi looked at Shigaraki in shock. "Woah."

"Right?"

"Does that make us the heroes?"

"Ah, but that brings us to our central question, doesn't it?"

Dabi gave Shigaraki a long, deer-eyed look, "Are you secretly a mad genius?"

"What do you mean _secretly?_ "

"Hi, Boss and Dabi!" Toga said as she ran out the door. "Bye Boss and Dabi!"

Shigaraki stared after her as she left. "Huh, I wondered what's up with her?"

Twice stopped in front of them both in a mad pant. **"Toga did it!** "

"No, she didn't!

" **Everything is on fire!"**

"It could be worse."

" **Everything is going to explode!**

"Everything will be ok as long as we stick to the schedule."

Dabi and Shahraki looked at each other.

They looked back at Twice.

"What?" They both asked in unison.

"We need to save the children!"

" **We need to save our asses!"**

An explosion rang throughout the area as Shigaraki and Dabi grabbed each other in fright. A large plume of fire rocketed down the central staircase engulfing the entire middle of the large department store in hellfire. Through it all, Twice stood like a stone statue gazing into the fiery abyss.

Twice looked back toward his two companions.

"I'm going to be honest, this is looking a little hairy."

" **Run for your lives!"**

The three villains grabbed their sacks and bolted to the door, flames hot on their heels. A wide-eyed Spinner joined them in their mad dash to the front door as the flames became a giant inferno of fiery death, determined to rid the world of the League of Villains.

Toga caught her breath as she watched her fellow league members try to outsprint the fiery tornado. A small part of her thought that these flames would get closer to wiping out the League than the real Endeavour ever would.

Her friends leaped out of the store as a giant explosion spread out into the sky. The store behind them caved in from the intense heat and pressure. It was a sight that had Toga drooling; her comrades covered in soot and gashes from the flying debris.

Sadly a single, depressing thought spread through her mind in the same way the explosion had ripped through the building.

"Hey, where's Mr. Compress?"

The four men sprawled on the ground quickly looked at each other in panic.

"Spinner, where's Mr. Compress?" Shigaraki asked accusingly.

"What? Why was I in charge of him?"

"You're the getaway driver. It's your job to make sure we all get away."

Spinner's jaw dropped as he realized he could not defeat Shigaraki's infallible logic.

The sound of the truck pulling up took all of their attention.

Mr. Compress looked out to them all, a cocky look on his face. Well, Toga imagined a cocky look on his face.

Masks.

"Magic," Mr. Compress enigmatically said, waving his hand mystically.

Wordlessly, the League piled into the van, their full bags dragging behind them as they steadfastly ignored the building burning to the ground behind them.

"So, now what?" Toga looked to her leader in excitement.

"We are going to deliver these toys to all the children of Tokyo!"

"How are supposed to deliver these gifts to all of the children in Tokyo?" Dabi gave Shigaraki a skeptical look.

"Simple! We'll use Kurorogi to-"

"Kurorogi isn't here…" Mr. Compress pointed out.

Shigaraki paused.

"We are going to deliver these toys to all the children in a single neighborhood in Tokyo!"

Dabi sighed.

Toga raised her hand in excitement. This was perfect! "I know which neighborhood to deliver these to!"

"Which one?" Shigaraki asked.

"Whatever neighborhood 1234 Parker Ln. Apartment 413, Musutafu is in!" She rattled off perfectly and without pause.

Everyone gave her a flat look.

"Ok!" Shigaraki clapped his hands. "We're all going to Musutafu!"

"Yay!"

"But Toga cannot deliver to that address."

"Aww."

/-/

Shigaraki _loved_ the holidays.

Mostly because every year, Santa got him the best present a young villainous boy could ask for: a week without heroes.

He always made sure he was a _very_ good boy.

If only some other people would think so as well.

"I don't think this is a good idea, Shigaraki."

"What did I tell you Dabi? You need to have _faith._ "

"I think I need more than faith at this point. We're breaking into a child's bedroom Shigaraki."

"Isn't even the first one we broke into tonight, Dabi."

"That doesn't make it better, Shigaraki!"

Shigaraki rolled his eyes as he slid into the small apartment. Dabi just didn't understand. All he needed was faith and time and he would show the world. Because if nothing else, Shigaraki Tomura was a man with a _plan_. And that plan right now was breaking into the bedroom of a teenage boy.

It was a good plan.

"Why are we breaking into this apartment anyway, Shigaraki," Dabi asked in a hushed whisper as he followed Shigaraki into the apartment. "Isn't this just risky? This guy not only knows us, but he's also a hero-in-training."

Shigaraki laughed, "And? Are you going to let a mere high school student scare you?"

Dabi gave him an incredulous look. "This guy beat Muscular in a fight. Muscular whose quirk _literally_ made him into a mountain of muscles. And this kid beat him _in a fistfight._ "

"Ah, but you see Dabi, we're not fighting with muscles."

"What are we fighting with then?"

Shigaraki gave a twisted smile, the kind that would give an old man a heart attack. "Holiday cheer, Dabi."

Dabi sighed. "Whatever, let's just get this over with. Although, is it a smart idea for you to do this? Don't you have like, a giant hate-boner for the kid?"

"Dabi, I wouldn't be a very good Santa if I let my burning desire to murder a child get in the way of giving said child Christmas joy, now would I?"

"I… guess?"

"Besides, would you rather have _Toga_ do this?"

Dabi sighed, "Fair point. Well, let's just drop off the present and let's get out of here before we get caught."

"That sounds good to me. Just let me pop into his room real quick," Shigaraki said, already opening the door.

"Shigaraki, no!"

Shigaraki turned to him, face cut from stone.

"Shigaraki, yes!"

He dashed inside the room as Dabi facepalmed with a suffering, hushed groan.

It took a lot of effort for Shigaraki to not vomit at the sight of Midoriya's room. Everywhere, in every single inch of his room was All Might.

An angry inferno whirled within him as he slowly inched toward the boy's bed, where Midoriya lay, sound asleep.

Another step.

That damned child, who seemed to be present at every defeat. Wherever Shigaraki went, this stupid child was there. This annoying little boy who was determined to stand against everything Shigaraki fought for.

Another step and Shigaraki found himself standing beside Midoriya.

One touch of his hand and that damning thorn in his side would be gone. With a small movement of his hand, the boy would fade away into nothingness, and the last thing Shigaraki would see of him would be the terror etched into Midoriya's face as he realized it was the end.

Shigaraki slowly sat on the bed and reached his hand. Dabi stood at the door, his eyes wide, too afraid to say anything and wake the child. Instead, he held his breath.

One touch and it would all be over. That's all it would take.

Shigaraki laid his palm on Midoriya's head, fingers hovering above.

Midoriya's eyes opened wide, like giant sauces cracked with terrified, red veins.

"S-Shigaraki?!"

Dabi choked on air.

Shigaraki leaned in close, a demonic smile splitting face.

"No, my child. Santa."

Dabi fell to the floor.

"W-what?" Midoriya stuttered, startled and shocked into lying still.

"I am Santa."

Midoriya stared into Shigaraki's eyes for a long moment, terror still present in his eyes.

...

Then, to Shigaraki's immense pleasure and Dabi's immense shock, Midoriya relaxed with an audible sigh.

"A dream," Midoriya said, closing his eyes and relaxing into Shigaraki's lap. "It's just a really, really weird dream."

Dabi's jaw dropped to the floor, which wasn't saying a lot considering he was still laid out on the floor.

Shigaraki chuckled and demonic laugh and to his delight, Midoriya joined in with him. "Sure, whatever kid. So, what is it that you want for Christmas?"

Midoriya sat up quickly his eyes wide with excitement. "Santa! You can help me! All I want for Christmas is wisdom!"

"Wisdom?" Shigaraki asked, genuinely confused.

"Freaking nerd," Dabi said from the floor.

Midoriya turned to the other occupant in the room, startled. "I-is that?"

"My elf," Shigaraki said without pause.

"This… this is a really weird dream. Why is he in a skirt?"

"Torture," Dabi replied.

"Because he was on my naughty list," Shigaraki said teasingly, prompting Dabi to groan.

"Ah, ok," Midoriya foolishly accepted. "Well, anyway I could use some help with this," He said as he pointed to the whiteboard in the room.

"What the hell is that?" Dabi exclaimed.

"It's my whiteboard," Midoriya responded.

It was chaos, more like it. It was a giant mess of several names with crazed, circles around them and nearly a dozen lines interconnected with each other and long lists on each name. There were multiple things crossed out and re-written.

There was a brief period in Shigaraki's mind where he imagined Midoriya as a villain and was a little disappointed. With a giant conspiracy board like this, Midoriya would have made a damn fine villain.

"What does it all mean?" Shigaraki asked in wonder.

Midoriya gave a short nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his neck. "A bunch of people in my class is trying to ask me out to the dance and I'm trying to figure out what to do."

…

"What?" Shigaraki flatly asked.

"What?" Dabi flatly repeated.

"What?" Midoriya obliviously replied.

"A-are you serious?" Shigaraki asked.

"Yeah, why? What's wrong?"

"Dude!" Dabi stood up in agitation. "You wrote a freaking essay up there! You're going to need way more professional help than Santa!"

Shigaraki stood up in defiance.

"There is no better help than Santa!" Shigaraki walked over to Midoriya and placed his palms on his shoulders. "Don't worry my child, I will help you. Santa will not give up on you!"

"Santa…" Midoriya looked starry-eyed up at Shigaraki.

Dabi stood off to the side, watching the surreal tableau of one of the most promising heroes in training looking up into the eyes of the leader of the League of Villains in pure wonder and gratitude.

"So, uhhhhh," Dabi interrupted perhaps a little too desperately. "How many people want to ask you out anyway?"

"Four."

"Wow."

"Goddamn."

"Yeah, it was really overwhelming. And then these other people also said they liked me and I just have no idea what to do."

"How many people in your class like you?" Shigaraki asked.

"Umm, there are five that I know of but after careful analysis, I'm fairly sure this one guy also had a crush on me."

"By any chance, does that have anything to do with the giant "CHEESE" in the corner of the board?" Dabi asked.

"That would be the guy I was talking about."

Shigaraki and Dabi stared at each other for a long moment.

"You live a strange, strange life, Midoriya," Dabi consoled. "And that is saying a lot coming from me."

"Yeah, I can only imagine how strange the life of an elf is."

Dabi sighed.

"You have no idea kid."

"So, Midoriya..." Shigaraki began. "Why don't you just ask someone to the dance and get it over with?"

"Well, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings."

Shigaraki and Dabi sighed.

Such a hero…

"Also, I don't want to cause any conflict." Midoriya offered, waving his hand placatingly.

"Conflict?" Shigaraki asked unaware of the Pandora's box he was opening.

Midoriya held his hand to his chin thought as he began his mumblelouge. "Apparently they're all competing over who is going to ask me to the dance and it's making me really uncomfortable but I don't really know how to tell them to stop because they are putting their all into it and isn't that what being a hero is all about but then there is the possibility of one of them hurt emotionally but apparently there even is the chance of them getting hurt physically if Bakugo gets his way and there is also-"

"You should listen to Bakugo," Shigaraki interrupted immediately.

"W-what? B-but Santa?"

"Huh? Oh! I-I mean, uh, that is what a person on the naughty list would do! Ho Ho Ho!" Although from Shigaraki's mouth, it came out as more of a villainous cackle but Shigaraki wasn't one to sweat details.

"Except for Shouto. You should make him suffer," Dabi added before Shigaraki slapped him across the back of his head.

"But uh, yeah. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated Santa! Oh! And Santa's little helper!"

"Do not call me that," Dabi said with fire in his eyes. "Also, I think we've established that I think you're beyond help."

"I haven't!" Shigaraki said merrily.

…

Merrily for him, at least.

"Midoriya, if all you want to do is not hurt anyone, then all you have to do is to not cause any pain," Shigaraki said in a lecturing manner.

"Umm, ok? But what does that mean?" Midoriya asked.

Shigaraki let out a great, bellowing laugh that would have made a polar proud. An emaciated polar bear, but still.

"Midoriya, the greatest gifts in life's are the lessons you figure out for yourself. Like my master always said to me, I can light you a match, but it's up to you to burn the bridge."

"Your master didn't sound very nice."

"He was to me and that's all that matters. Now get in bed, Midoriya. A young hero needs his sleep. Who knows when a scary villain will catch you unawares."

Dabi choked.

Midoriya went back in bed and pulled the covers over him, his eyes already lidded from exhaustion. "Thank you, Santa-sensei. I'll try to make sense of your advice in the morning."

"You do that, Midoriya. And if nothing else, follow your heart. It did wonders for me," Shigaraki gave Midoriya one last chapped, disturbingly cheery, face-splitting smile before he made for the door. Behind him. Midoriya drifted asleep, his thought resting on the scary Santa's advice and the mean words of Santa's helper elf with the mini skirt.

Shigaraki and Dabi made their way outside, the night nearly over.

"I can't believe that worked," Dabi said, a look of shock plastered on his face.

"I can. Because I planned it."

"You planned giving one of your worst enemies love advice?"

"I planned on giving him holiday cheer, Dabi."

"Where did you come up with that advice anyway? What's it supposed to mean?"

"Well, most of my life is focused on hurting people, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, if I didn't want to do that, then I wouldn't, simple as that."

Dabi dragged his hand across his face. "And how is that going to translate to the kid's love problems?

Shigaraki shrugged, "I don't know. I kept it vague enough so the kid will think of something on his own. Or maybe not. I don't really care either way. He is the enemy.

"What happened to the holiday cheer?"

"I can't help it; I'm a villain after all."

Shigaraki began to walk down the stairs before he stopped, a thought thundering its way through his brain. "Hey, Dabi."

"Yeah, Shigaraki?"

"Don't speak a word of what we learned in there to Toga."

"Are you kidding? It may be close to Christmas, but I'm not suicidal."

"Dude..."

"What?" Dabi said arms wide, the first smile spreading on his face all night. "I can't help it; I'm a villain after all."

Shigaraki smiled.

" _Remember. No man is a failure who has friends." —It's a Wonderful Life_

* * *

 **Happy holidays and a happy new year everyone!**

 **So, this is a special Christmas-themed chapter for the Christmas fic. I obviously wanted to get this out for Christmas but I got a little busy with the holidays. There were two different families I had to spend the holidays with (my own and my beta/ partner's) so I didn't have so much free time.**

 **Thankfully it was all worth it because I got enough exp to evolve my relationship. Yep, I leveled up and evolved into fiance! It might take a bit for me to level up into my final evolution though. (^.^')**

 **But yeah, I popped the question and now my beta girlfriend is now my beta fiancee! I'll probably start referring to her as Poptart to make things easier.**

 **Anyways, to all of you waiting for the Jirou cliffhanger to be resolved, I'm sorry! Hopefully, a cracky villain interlude and the longest chapter in the fic so far will make up for it!**

 **I actually had a lot of fun writing the league and A LOT of fun writing Midoriya with them. TBH, I might actually write another fic where Midoriya joins League but tries to make them heroic like the cinnamon bun he is.**

 **Might make it a resolution along with the other MHA fic I'm planning. (^.~ )**

 **I'd also like to take this moment to thank you all for all of your support over the last few months. As I said, I'm new to writing fiction and I've been blown away by all of the support I've gotten. Thank you all so much and l of your feedback and support is greatly appreciated!**

 **And as always, thank you for reading and please leave any feedback you can!**

 **Happy holidays and a prosperous New Year!**

 **-Dorky Desperado**


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